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HUNTINGTON FUND 



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SCRAPS, 



REV. FRANCIS WRANGHAM, 



M.A. F.R.S. 



Quispiam fort esse (nee id immeritb) mirabitur me hac cetate hominem, 
gravioribus studiis deditum — nunc veluti repuerascentem, non modb veteres 
Mas nugas tanto intervallo rcpetere, veriim etiam veluti novo stultitice 
auctario cumulare. (Bez^e Poem. Praef.) 



LONDON: 

PRINTED BY C. BALDWIN, NEW BRIDGE-STREET. 



1816. 



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Drawn & Ungmved by MJIauofi&ri. from tile Original JSviile. fy J-A'ol^kais.JtA: 



CAROLINA . SYMMONS . ANNVM . AG-ENS XV 



FACTE . EXTMIA. JNGENIO . ADMIRABIEI S . 11ECVS . ET J>ELICIAE . SVOKVM 

JTKTATIS . ET . SVAYITATIS . SVAE . FARENTIBVS . PROPINQVIS . AMITIS . 

tBISTE .DESID-KIUVM . KELIQYIT. 




FEAHCIS WUANGEAM 9 Mjio EM,S* 



MILTON'S 

' SECOND DEFENCE 

OF 

THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND;* 

IN ANSWER TO 

AN INFAMOUS ANONYMOUS WORK, 

ENTITLED 

4 €t)e Crp of tfje llopal 2$looti to ^eatoert 
against tf)e tfiujltef) $amcit>e&' 



Nunc sub foederibus coeant felicibus una 
Libertas, et jus sacri inviolabile sceptri. 
Jtege sub Augustofas sit laudare Catonem. (George.) 

Here, Diadems, with Freedom blend your rays j 
Augustus throned endures a Cato's praise. 



[Only 50 copies printed separately.^ 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



XT would not have been difficult to prefix to 
the present Translation a Memoir of M. Sau- 
maise, which should have contained several par- 
ticulars bearing upon this controversy, extracted 
from volumes apparently never consulted by his 
biographers, and some which those biographers 
with the authorities in their hands seem stu- 
diously to have suppressed. A professed pane- 
gyrist like Vorstius, in his funeral Eloge, might 
perhaps be permitted (to borrow the language 
of his French Translator) passer ces choses-la 
peu agreables sous silence, et faire voiles d cote 
de ces ecueils ; but it can hardly be supposed, 
that a regular historian should have been guilty 
of the same omission. Yet Antoine Clement, 
in the Life prefixed to his 6 Claudii Salmasii, 
Viri Maximi, Epistolarum Liber Primus* (4to. 
Lugd. Bat. 1656), although he adverts at some 
length to the part which his hero was invited 

* The admirable portrait accompanying this Volume is 
followed by a not very admirable copy of verses from the pen 

B 2 



IV ADVERTISEMENT. 

to take in the questions relative to Episcopacy, 
Presbytery, and Independency in the English 
Church,* cautiously avoids even naming his im- 
par congressus with the author of Paradise Lost : 
and Bayle is still more disingenuous. His only 
knowledge of Milton's marriage he appears to 

of C. Barlaeus. For the subjoined version of it I am, in a 
great degree,, indebted to the Rev. Dr. Symmons. 

In Effigiem Claudii Salmasii, Principis Eruditorum. 

Gallia quo nuper, jam sidere Leyda superbit ; 

Prcslucet magnis ortibus ista Pharos. 
Hcec sunt per specti, Lector, compendia mundi: 

Fronte sub hac Pallas prodigiosa latet. 
Partimur doctrinam alii ; hicsetota recondit; 

Immensosque habitat mens spatiosa lares. 
Scribiie, scriptores : cui pagina scripta Solini est, 

Judice me, scripti cir cuius orbis erit. 

Of Gallia once, of Leyden now the star, 
Art's glorious torch, this Pharos beams afar. 
Crowded within this brow, a world is seen; 
A giant Pallas sits enthroned within, 
learning is ours by scraps, his vast and whole ; 
Nor cramps the spacious dome his mighty soul. 
Solinus now — toil on, ye writing hosts ! 
The universe of learning singly boasts. 

* Melius tamen, says his Biographer, illud regimen 

(sc. Episcopale) et haud dubie cum summd uiilitaie processurum 
in Anglicanis Ecclesiis existimabat ; cum videret contra, subla- 
tis Episcopis omne genus Hceresium ei Schismatum pedetentim 
gliscere, et repentinam illam mutationem ac nimis violentam, neG 
institutam eo ordine utfas erat, aliquando causam fore misc- 
tandce per universam Britanniam calamitatis. 



ADVERTISEMENT. V 

have derived from Salmasius* fabulous account 
of it, though he had actually procured Latin 
extracts from Toland's Life of the English Poet 
for the use of his Dictionary ! What, it may 
well be asked, would he himself have said, if he 
had detected any other person in a similar 
offence? He proceeds to characterise him as 
one of those satirical wits who delight in stimu- 
lating, accumulating, and propagating calum- 
nious reports,* unsuccessfully indeed (he as- 
serts), in his c Iconoclastes ;' as c every body 
abroad remained convinced, that Charles L him- 
self wrote the book which bore his name ! ! ' 
With the view of supplying, to the best of 

* Bishop Newton's Apology for his method of writing con- 
troversy is somewhat more liberal. " With more candid and 
ingenuous disputants, he would have preferred civility and fair 
argument to wit and satire : ' to do so was my choice, and to 
have done thus was my choice/ is his own language. Besides, 
contests of every kind were then waged in a rougher and more 
barbarous manner." (Life, p. lxx.) Of Saumaise in particular, 
we are told by Sorbiere, it was impossible to dispute the opi- 
nions, in the smallest degree, without being called c a blockhead,' 
' an idiot,' and perhaps ' a rascal/ " He has constructed no 
work (he adds) with lime and sand, by which posterity will be 
benefited. He cannot live without illustrious enemies, and 
without some quarrel upon his hands, and it does not suffice him 
to have disarmed his man, and obtained from him the usual 
satisfaction : he must trample him in the dirt, and disfigure him. 
His Latinity runs away with him. He is unwilling, that all the 
foul language he has learnt should be lost ; and he finds it more 
easy to produce from the stores of his memory the vituperative 
terms, which he has collected from ancient authors, than deli- 
cate raillery and sound argument from any other source." 



VI ADVERTISEMENT. 

my power, such misrepresentations or defects, 
I had made copious abstracts from Burman's 
valuable Sylloge, the Letters of Gudius and 
Sarravius, Vossius' Correspondence edited by 
Colomesius, &c. &c. &c, to say nothing of a 
host of minor writers. I had even submitted, 
in hours of greater leisure than I now possess, 
to the task of analysing the arguments employed 
upon the occasion; and hoped to have presented 
to the public a memoir not wholly unworthy 
of it's acceptance. But the combining and 
revising due to such a subject and such comba- 
tants, which would always have been arduous to 
me, I now, alas ! find to be impracticable ; and I 
must console myself with the idea, that enough 
is probably known, both of Salmasius* and his 
royal patroness, the extravagant Christina (whom 
Milton must be admitted, in his sublime apos- 
trophe, to have raised far above her desertf) to 

* See Dr. Symmons' Life of Milton, 2d Edit. pp. 350, 351, 
&c. &c. My obligations indeed to this work, and to it's author, 
are innumerable. The first will be copiously traced in the 
following pages : the latter I am happy to seize this, and every 
opportunity of acknowledging, however inadequately. To the 
Rev. Dr. Disney also, of the Hyde, I gladly return my thanks 
for many kind attentions connected with this little work. 

f Yet the great Conde, as well at. Milton, panegyrised her 
magnanimity. The feelings of these two encomiasts however, on 
the subject of the royalty which she renounced, may be pre- 
sumed to have been not quite in unison. But sometimes, we 
are told, Idem fit ex diversis : this seems to prove, that adversis 
may be substituted in the Thesis. Her conduct, after her abdi- 
cation and abjuration of Protestantism, must surely be regarded 



ADVERTISEMENT. Vli 

render any thing in the way of elucidation be- 
yond what is subjoined in the following notes, 
unnecessary. Even the notes are, generally, so 
little essential to the mere understanding of the 
text, that I have usually left the quotations, 
which they contain, untranslated. 

The Version itself, made on the suggestion 
of an eminent Bookseller many years ago, as 
circumstances intercepted it's appearance at the 
time, was thrown aside with numerous other 
still more imperfect undertakings, to perish. 
-A valued friend, by his intercession, drew it 
from the devoted heap. It communicates re- 
spectability of size at least to the volume, to 
which it is prefixed : and if by contributing 
to revive, or to extend, a conviction of the 
integrity, magnanimity, consistency, and erudi- 
tion of Milton — for of the erroneousness of 
several of his opinions is, here, no question — it 
should polish or replace one leaf of his laurel 
crown, which Malignity has breathed upon or 
Time has broken off, I shall be abundantly 
satisfied. 

Such as it is, I inscribe it, with the most un- 
feigned respect, to 

THE RIGHT HON. EARL SPENCER. 

as indefensible. Her strange caprices of dress and association 
might be forgiven ; but the murther of Monaldeschi must close 
the mouth of her defenders. Dr. Symmons correctly confines 
his vindication to the period when she praised Milton, and Mil- 
ton praised her ! 



1 



MILTON'S 

SECOND DEFENCE, &c 



A HAT first and greatest of human duties, 
constant gratitude to God, with a faithful 
remembrance, and (whenever we have been 
blessed beyond our hopes and expectations) an 
express and devout acknowledgement of his 
favours, I feel now strongly incumbent upon 
me, in the very outset of my work, on three 
several accounts. First, because I am fallen 
upon those days, in which the eminent virtues 
and unprecedented magnanimity and persever- 
ance of my fellow-citizens , after due invocation 
of the Deity and under his most obvious gui- 
dance, by a series of unparallelled actions and 
exertions have rescued the state from grievous 
tyranny and religion from a most ignominious 
slavery : Next, because when many suddenly 
sprung up with low-born malice to criminate 
their great achievements, and one more particu- 
larly (elated with a pedant's pride, and puffed 
up by the adulations of his followers) in an 



10 milton's second defence. 

infamous book levelled against me had nefa- 
riously undertaken the vindication of all tyrants, 
I was specially and unanimously selected by 
the redeemers of my country, as not unequal 
to an adversary of such renown or a subject of 
such importance, to defend in public the cause 
of the people of England, and if ever it might 
so be asserted, of Liberty herself: and Lastly, 
because in a matter of so much difficulty and 
such anxious expectation, I neither disappointed 
the hope, shall I call it ? or the opinion of my 
countrymen, nor failed to convince great num- 
bers of foreign statesmen and scholars ; having 
at the same time so shattered my presumptuous 
adversary in the conflict, by humbling his 
pride and ruining his character, as to prevent 
him for the three years during which he survived 
his defeat, notwithstanding all his indignant 
menaces, from again molesting me otherwise 
than by purchasing the feeble assistance of 
some contemptible allies, and suborning (as will 
shortly appear) a few poor fulsome panegyrists 
to repair, if possible, his recent and unforeseen 
disgrace. These important circumstances then, 
considered as proofs of the divine goodness, 
advancing a powerful claim to my gratitude, 
and supplying also a most favourable auspice 
for the commencement of my present under- 
taking, I now commemorate with the profound- 
est veneration. 

Who indeed is there, that does not look upon 



MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE, 



21 



his country's glories as his own ? And what can 
be more glorious to any country, than the resto- 
ration of freedom in both it's civil and it's 
religious concerns ? In both these respects, 
what people or what state has evinced more 
fortitude, or experienced better fortune, than 
this ? For fortitude does not wholly exert itself 
in battle, but equally exhibits it's energy and 
it's intrepidity in opposition to every species of 
fear. The Greeks, those primary objects of our 
respect, and the Romans, when they were about 
to expel a tyrant, displayed no other virtue than 
a zeal for liberty, with a weapon to wield and 
an arm to strike. All that was farther necessary 
they easily accomplished, with happy omens, 
amidst the praises and gratulations of mankind. 
Neither did they seem so much to rush into the 
danger of doubtful contest, as to hurry forward 
to the fair and honourable struggle of virtue, 
to rewards and crowns and the assured hope 
of immortality. Tyranny was not, then, a hal- 
lowed thing: tyrants had not, as the sudden 
self-created viceroys and vicars of Christ, from 
hopelessness of the affection, entrenched them- 
selves behind the blind superstition, of the 
populace : the lower orders had not, under 
the stupefying influence of the priesthood, sunk 
into a state of barbarism darker even than that, 
in 'which the idiots of India now grovel. For 
these only worship as deities a crew of perni- 
cious demons, whom they cannot get rid of; 



12 milton's second defence* 

those on the contrary, to incapacitate themselves 
for the expulsion of tyrants, converted them 
into arrogant divinities against themselves, and 
consecrated the pests of mankind to their own 
destruction. 

With all those legions of inveterate opinions, 
superstitions, abuses, and terrors — objects of 
deeper dismay to others, than an actual enemy 
— the people of England had to contend : and 
all those through their better instruction, aided 
doubtless by suggestions from above, they 
subdued ; with such a confidence in their cause, 
and so high a degree of valour and of virtue, 
that though a numerous population, they can 
no longer be considered from their towering and 
elevated qualities as c a lower order;' and Bri- 
tain herself, which has long been accounted a 
land prolific of tyrants, has henceforth a title 
to be proclaimed by posterity more prolific of 
patriots — patriots, not goaded by a contempt or 
an infraction of the laws to ungoverned licen- 
tiousness, not inflamed by mock images of virtue 
and of glory, or allured through a ridiculous 
imitation of the ancients by the empty name of 
liberty ; but guided along the right and only 
path to true freedom by innocence of life and 
purity of morals, and armed in the just and 
necessary defence of religion and the laws. 

Relying then uniformly on the assistance of 
God, they repelled servitude with the most 
justifiable war : but though I claim no share of 



milton's second defence. 13 

their peculiar praise, I can easily defend myself 
from the charge (should any such be brought 
against me) of indolence, or of timidity. For 
I did not so decline the toils and dangers of 
war, as not in another way, with much more 
efficacy and with not less danger to myself, to 
assist my countrymen, and exhibit a mind 
neither shrinking from adverse fortune, nor 
actuated by any improper fear of calumny or of 
death. Eminently devoted as I had been from 
my childhood to the more liberal studies, and 
always stronger in my intellect than in my body, 
I avoided the labours of the camp, in which any 
robust private might easily have surpassed me, 
and betook myself to those weapons which I 
could wield with superior effect : that so I might 
bring my better and more valuable faculties, if 
indeed they were of any value, and not my 
worse, as my greatest possible contribution to 
the assistance of my country and this her most 
honourable cause. 

Concluding therefore within myself that, if 
God selected them to achieve exploits so glo- 
rious, he had doubtless selected others as 
writers properly to record and embellish those 
achievements, and to protect by argument (the 
bulwark, properly and peculiarly belonging to 
man) that truth, which had already been pro- 
tected by arms ; though I profoundly admire 
those heroes of the field, I am so far from com- 
plaining of my own province, that I felicitate 






14 MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 

myself upon it, and again fervently thank the 
heavenly Giver of all good gifts, that it is such 
as much rather to be an object of envy to others, 
than of regret to myself. In regard to myself, 
however, I would not willingly institute any 
comparison with the humblest of my species, 
nor utter a single syllable, that should wear the 
appearance of presumption : but whenever I 
look to my most noble and illustrious cause, 
and to the exalted function of defending the 
defenders of my country imposed upon me by 
their own free suffrages and judgements, I 
confess I can hardly restrain myself from adven- 
turously soaring beyond the natural simplicity 
of an exordium, and seeking a more dignified 
commencement ; since I as far exceed in gran- 
deur and strength of subject all the celebrated 
orators of antiquity, as I yield to them in 
my power of doing justice to it, with respect 
both to my feelings and to my expressions — 
confined too, as I necessarily am, to a foreign 
language, in which I often fall beneath my own 
conceptions. 

This subject has indeed excited such expec- 
tation, and is become a matter of so much pub- 
licity, that I imagine myself not as in the Forum 
or on the Rostra, surrounded by the single 
"people of Rome or of Athens ; but as if I had 
already in my former Defence addressed, and 
were now again addressing, almost the whole of 
Europe met together to listen and to decide ; 



milton's second defence.. 15 

the collective assemblies of every thing respect- 
able among men, and cities, and nations. I 
now seem, in setting out upon my journey, to 
look down from my elevation over the wide- 
spread regions of the Continent upon innumer- 
able crowds, their faces totally unknown to me, 
their feelings in perfect unison with mine. Here 
the manly and high-minded German, there the 
Frank with his animated and liberal impetuosity 
worthy of his name, here the meditative wis- 
dom of the Spaniard, there the steady self- 
possessing magnanimity of the Italian meets my 
eyes. Every free bosom, every ingenuous and 
noble principle, whether prudentially concealed 
or openly avowed, gives me it's silent or it's 
public suffrage ; some attending and applauding 
my enterprise, and some reluctantly surrender- 
ing themselves to the power of truth. So 
accompanied, I appear as if I were bringing 
back Liberty, after her long long expulsion and 
exile, to every realm between the pillars of Her- 
cules and the extremities of Bacchus' eastern 
conquests ; and, like Triptolemus of old, com- 
municating universally from my own state to 
others of all denominations a produce, much 
more valuable however than that of Ceres, the 
restoration of civil freedom and independence. 

Nor do I come forward this second time 
either wholly unknown, or I hope wholly unac- 
ceptable : as I am He who before, upon the first 
application of the English leaders, encountered 
1 



16 milton's second defence. 

in single combat the hardy champion of tyrants, 
the contumelious assailant of our patriotic hosts 
— till then, in the general opinion as well as in 
his- own, accounted invincible ; and with my 
feathered arrow * striking his scurrilous throat, 
defeated him even at his own weapons ; and, if 
I may be permitted without depreciation to 
trust the sentiments and decisions of numbers 
of intelligent and impartial readers, bore off a 
complete victory.t As a proof that this is no 
false or exaggerated account, I may state what 
appears perfectly providential, that when on the 
honourable invitation of Christina, t that emi- 

* Adacto convitiantis injugulum hoc stilo. The stilus, by it's 
ibnn, was adapted to do execution in more ways than one : and 
to this P. Sarpi alluded, when he said, after having narrowly 
escaped assassination, "Ben riconosco lo stilo delta Romana 
ewria" He had, previously, been attacked with much violence 
by the writers of that church. From it's more bloody, though 
in many instances less malignant, application is derived the 
modern word, stiletto. 

An English translator, however, in order to preserve the 
pun, is obliged to make a slight change in the figure. 

+ Opima spolia, as it appears from Livy (iv. 20.) are those, 
quce dux duci detrahit* If we were obliged to interpret 
the phrase rigidly in this acceptation, we might perhaps 
justify Milton by referring to Saumaise's common title of 
* Princeps Erudiiionis^ to which likewise he probably thought 
he had himself as just a claim. But Varro will save his modesty, 
by his Si manipularis miles detraxerit, dummodo duci hostium. 
(Fest.) 

% Upon this most extraordinary woman, Warton in his 
edition of Milton's Minor Poems (Ed. 2d. 1791.) has two long 
potes, pp. 483 — 488. It does not appear, however, that she 



milton's second defence* i? 

irent patroness of every valuable art and every 
learned man, this Monsieur or Madame Saumaise 
(for by whether name he ought to be called, the 
notorious despotism of the lady* has rendered 

dismissed Saumaise from her court with contempt ; if we may 
trust her own declarations, in her letter to his widow, that she 
had for him " des sentimens de iendresse aussi veritables qa'elle 
les awreit pu avoir pour un pere" that he was " celni de tous 
les hommes qui meritoit le mieux d'etre immortel," and that 
with regard to his son " elle voidoit contribuer, aidant qu'il dc- 
pendroit d'elle, a le rendre dignejils dhin si grand pere:" un- 
less we allow, with Warton, that from her levity, or hypocrisy, 
or caprice " she might have acted inconsistently in some parts of 
this "business." She herself says, in the same letter, that she 
had incurred " des soupgons d'etre mediocrement inter essee a 
la gloire de ce grand homme." That she did something more 
at least than merely " commend the wit and stile" of Milton's 
performance, of which Vossius has informed us, is probable from 
her being introduced twice more in this Defensio Secun&a, 
and in one of those passages made the subject of an animated 
apostrophe. It was no part of our authors character to recom- 
pense an empty compliment by the sacrifice of substantial truth. 
* Madame Saumaise, it appears from several letters in the 
Sarravian collection, was far from being a lamb in disposition. 
In Epist. ci, cxxiii, she is denominated c Xanthippe ; ' in cxxxi, 
£t<TKoivu; in clvi, she is represented as suis consiliis par ere solita ; 
in others she is baptized c Tanaquil,' Sic. and seems particu- 
larly to have been so formidable a scold among her maids, that 
Sarrau could not induce any to venture upon her service, unless 
Saumaise would on his part engage to pay their expenses 
back again, if dismissed, from Leyden to Paris. By his bro- 
ther-critics, Mr. Warton informs us, p. 487, she was called 
c Juno.' She had some cause, however, for her ill temper ; as 
the climate of Leyden, where Saumaise was strenuously urged 
by his friends to remain, had carried off three of her little girls 

C 



18 milton's second defence* 

universally a matter of doubt) had visited the 
court of Sweden, and had been entertained 
as a stranger with the most flattering attention, 
there was he suddenly surprised by the arrival 
of my Defence. Which being eagerly read, and 
by the queen herself one of the very first, her 
majesty, out of regard to the dignity of her own 
character, remitted nothing, indeed, of her ac~ 
customed kindness and generosity to her guest : 
but in every other respect, if I may repeat the 
current story, such a sudden revolution of opi- 
nion took place, that he who a few days before 
stood in the highest favour, sunk instantly into 
the most entire neglect ; and his subsequent 
departure, for which he easily obtained permis- 
sion shortly afterward, left it problematical in 
the minds of numbers, whether he was received 
with greater honour or dismissed with greater 

in rapid succession, and considerably affected the health both of 
her husband and herself. Ib. Epist. clxi. 

With regard to Christina, too, she could not be perhaps 
wholly without jealousy ; as that singular personage, in the 
first stages of her regard for Saumaise, e ' when he was indisposed 
or confined to his room by the cold of the climate, would visit 
him in his chamber, and locking the door light his fire, make 
his breakfast, and stay with him for some hours ! " (See Dr. 
Symmons' < Life of Milton,' Ed. 2d. 390, note 6.) But Need- 
ham (a great crony, indeed, of Milton's) in his c Mercurius 
Politicus 9 informs us, u she subsequently cashiered him her 
favour, as a pernicious parasite and a promoter of tyranny :" 
this might conciliate the offended majesty of Madame Sau- 
maise. (Ib.) 



MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 19 

contempt. Neither did his reputation, in other 
places, suffer less severely. 

All this however, I adduce, not to set myself 
off— there is no need for it : but simply to show 
more clearly, as I proposed in the beginning, 
upon what strong grounds I commenced my 
work with thanks to the Almighty ; and, as my 
best and most creditable exordium, to demon- 
strate by an accumulation of proofs that, though 
not exempt from human affliction, I and mine 
are still under the care of the Deity, by whom I 
have been aided and encouraged in discussing, 
as it were, before the congregated world affairs 
of the deepest moment, connected intimately 
with the concerns of my country and most 
influential upon every civil and religious interest; 
and defending not one people only, not one 
poor solitary client, but rather the entire human 
race, against the enemies of human liberty. 
This is a privilege, beyond which it is neither 
in my power, nor indeed in my wishes, to aspire. 
Him then I humbly entreat that, relying solely 
upon his wonted bounty and assistance, I may 
evince at least the same integrity, diligence, 
fidelity, and good fortune, with which I lately 
defended deeds of heroism and justice, in de- 
fending those by whom they were done, and 
myself at the same time (classed as I have been 
with them, not for my honour, but my disgrace) 
from unmerited calumny and invective. 

If there be any, who think that this might 
c 2 



20 mtlton's second defence. 

have been more properly passed over with 
disdain, I should be of their opinion, were it's 
circulation confined to such as are well ac- 
quainted with our characters : but how shall 
others be prevented from admitting the lies of 
our adversaries as facts ? When however we 
shall have taken all due pains to despatch truth 
in our vindication wherever falsehood has gone 
before, they will undoubtedly be undeceived in 
their conclusions, and he will be ashamed of his 
calumnies — or, if not ashamed, contemned with 
greater propriety. He would indeed have 
sooner received the castigation he deserves, had 
he not hitherto screened himself by false reports; 
industriously giving out that 'Saumaise was again 
at w r ork, fabricating new volumes against me, 
which w r ere on the point of making their appear- 
ance.' Of this artifice the only result has been, 
that he has procured a temporary respite of the 
execution of his sentence as a calumniator; as 
I thought it right to wait awhile, and reserve 
myself fresh and vigorous for a stouter foe. But 
with Saumaise, I conceive, my warfare is con- 
cluded, since he is now dead — how dead, I will 
not say : for I will not make his loss of life 
matter of reproach to him, as he did my loss of 
sight to me. Though there are some, who lay 
his death at my door : * and assert that while by 

* " Salmasius died at the Spa, September 3, 1653 ; and, as 
controvertists are commonly said to "be killed by their last 
dispute, Milton was flattered with the credit of destroying him." 



milton's second defence. 21 

struggling with my keen shafts he infixed them 
still more deeply, and saw his difficulties thick- 
ening round him — the season for reply elapsed, 
the popularity of the work annihilated, his repu- 
tation and character ruined, and his credit with 
sovereigns (on account of his wretched defence 
of royalty) upon the decline — he lingered 
through three years of mortification, and died 
at last rather of chagrin, than of bodily ailment. 
Be that as it may, if I am again to engage an 
enemy so thoroughly known, and to wage with 
him a posthumous war, I can feel no appre- 
hension, after having so easily sustained his 
fiercer and more vehement attacks, of sinking 
under the efforts of his debility and his death- 
bed. 

And now, to come at last to this thing, that 
cries to us ; for I hear the cry — not indeed of 
the royal blood, as the title of the book pre- 
tends — but of some lurking blockhead : the 
crier himself I no where descry.* Ho there! 

(Johnson's ' Life of Milton.' ) The title of the Book, to which 
Milton was now replying, it must he remembered was Jlegii 
Sanguinis Clamor adversus Parricidas Anglicanos^ or, ' The 
Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven against the English Parri- 
cides.' 

* In almost every long work (however grave and methodical) 
passages occur, which a translator will find, from incongruity of 
idiom &c, nearly if not wholly untranslateable. These are 
usually multiplied, when any thing of vivacity or scurrility 
mingles in the composition. In that case puns, equivoques, 
and allusions frequently abound; more particularly, if th® 



22 milton's second defence, 

Who are you ? Any body, or no body ? Even 
the meanest of mankind, the very slaves, have 
their names. Am I doomed always to contend 
with anonymous foes ?* And yet these are your 
great king's men : I should be surprised, if 
kings could be persuaded to think them so. 



writer have a mind stored with classical images and expressions. 
This,, Milton had in an eminent degree : and not this only, but 
a turn for what his Italian friends would have denominated 
concetti — improved certainly, if not formed, in their society. 
To compensate for the loss of those which I have been con- 
strained to omit, though many I have sought, perhaps unsuc- 
cessfully, to retain (and that rather to present the reader with 
a tolerable fac simile of Milton's Latin composition, then out 
of regard to the trifles themselves) I have occasionally intro- 
duced a jeu de mot, where there is no precise warrant for it in 
the original : e. g. the jingle of cry and descry > &c. In the 
note, p. 23, an instance occurs of the kind alluded to. 

* Saumaise, it appears both from this passage, and from 
one immediately following — Citm vester ille Claudius de Jure 
Regio, materia save gratiosissimd, sine nomine tamen orsus 
esset scribere — as well as from the title of Milton's reply, ' Pro 
Populo Anglicano Defensio contra Claudii Anonymi, alias 
Salmasii, &c.,' and from some parts of his preface to it, issued 
his first publication without a name. This double-named Ano- 
nymous, as solecistical, is treated by Saumaise in his ■ Re- 
sjponsio' with great severity : where however he inconsistently 
exonerates our author of part of the Defence, insinuating that 
it was written d, ludimagistro quodam Gallo de trivio (Could 
he here blunderingly mean Gill, who died in 1642 ?) and clum- 
sily retaliates the alias by a Johahnis Asini, alias Multonis 
(nam * multo 9 vervex est etiam Anglis) which he immediately 
changes into Tygridis alias Leopardi, and Lupi alias Molossi ; 
as the first, he says, are too meek a pair of animals for the 
parallel. 



milton's second defence. 23 

The followers and friends of kings are not 
ashamed of their principals. How then can 
these be such ? They bestow no presents, but 
rather receive them : they contribute nothing, 
not even their names, to the royal cause. What 
then ! They give words ; * and yet even these 
they have not the generosity to give for nothing, 
or the spirit to sanction by the addition of their 
signatures. Whereas I, Messieurs Les Anonymes 
(for I must address you by a foreign name, as 
you do not allow me to do it in plain English) 
though your great Saumaise first published upon 
his most courtly subject, the Royal Prerogative, 
without his name, and left me at full liberty to 
follow his example ; I was so far from being 
ashamed of myself or of my cause, that I 
should have deemed it infamous to undertake a 
work of such importance without an open ac- 
knowledgement of myself. What I then openly 
acknowledge, writing in a republic against 
kings, why do you, writing in the dominions or 
under the patronage of kings against a republic, 
studiously conceal ? Why do you tremble, in a 
place of safety ? Why shrink, as in the night, 
amidst full day-light; and by your invidious 
and suspicious cowardice throw a slur upon the 
high power and favour, by which you are pro- 

•r 

* Dant verba, every school-boy knows, is an equivoque, 
which admits of no parallel version into English, so as to 
imply f deception* in terms compatible with the gratis dare? 
which follows. 



14 miltgn's second defence. 

tected ? Do you doubt, whether or not they are 
able to protect you ? So masked and disguised, 
truly, you resemble rather a band of thieves 
collected to " roD the exchequer," than a cohort 
of warriors marshalled to defend the rights of 
kings. I publicly state, what I am ; # and the 
power, which I now withhold from kings, I 
would still in any legitimate kingdom continue 
rigorously to withhold from them : neither 
could any monarch condemn me as a criminal, 
without first condemning himself as a tyrant. 
In inveighing indeed against tyrants, how 
do i injure kings, whom i place at the far- 
THEST distance from tyrants ? Good men and 
bad do not, in fact, more widely differ. Whence 
it follows, that a tyrant is not only not a king, 
but a character universally most hostile to a 
king ; and, if we refer to the annals of anti- 
quity, we shall find that more kings have been 
dethroned and destroyed by tyrants, than by 
the people. To affirm, then, that tyrants ought 
to be cut off is to affirm, not that kings, but 
that their worst and deadliest enemies ought to 
be cut off. What you, on the other hand, con- 



* " I am a plain man, and on my lirst appearance in this 
way I told my name, and who I belonged to." (Preface to the 
« Defence of the Divine Legation.') Such was Warburton's 
principle. The practice of his followers appears, occasionally, 
to have been somewhat less honest. See, in Parr's Dedication 
of i Two Tracts of a Warburtonian* to Bishop Hurd, his com- 
ment upon these " deeds without a name/' p. 158. 



MTLTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 



25 



tend for as the prerogative of kings, that their 
will should be law, is not a prerogative, but a 
mischievous and criminal and ruinous privilege. 
By this envenomed, not salutary present, pro- 
claiming them to be above all violence and 
peril, you are yourselves the authors of their 
destruction ; and establish their identity with 
tyrants, by giving to both an identity of what 
you call ' rights/ For, if a king does not avail 
himself of this his prerogative (which he will 
never do, so long as he is a king, and not a 
tyrant) that is to be set down to him not as a 
king, but as a man. And what more absurd 
than a right, which a king cannot exercise but 
by renouncing his humanity ; and which con- 
strains him to prove himself a man, only by 
ceasing to be a king ! What can be urged, more 
contumelious to royalty than this ? The advo- 
cate of such a doctrine must himself be the 
vilest and most unjust of mortals : and how can 
he be more vile, than by becoming the very 
creature, which he would make others? If there- 
fore, as one of the ancient sects arrogantly pro- 
nounced, " every good man be a king;"* it 



* Nay more, if we may trust Horace, rex denique reguml 
(Ep. I. i. 107,) or ' Cesar's Caesar.' Horace's Sapiens, in this 
passage, is the bonus vir et fortis of Cicero, qui miser esse non 
potest. (Paradox, ii.) To this ' wise man of the porch/ the 
* budge doctors of the Stoic fur* in the fifth and sixth Para* 
doxes appropriate all genuine freedom and real opulence 1 



26 milton's second defence, 

equally follows that every bad man, to the ex- 
tent of his capacity, is a tyrant. For, not to 
puff him up by the denomination, a tyrant is a 
mean, not a lofty thing ; mean in proportion to 
his magnitude, and servile in proportion to his 
power. Others are voluntary slaves to their 
own vices alone : whereas a tyrant is a slave not 
only to his own, but even (often against his 
•will) to those of an importunate host of minis- 
ters and satellites; compelled to devolve his 
despotism on his infamous minions, and to live, 
the lowest of slaves, in a state of servitude to 
his own dependents. Rightly, then, may this 
name be bestowed upon the humblest retainer 
of tyrants, for instance, upon this crier now 
in question ; whose deep-mouthed bawling in 
their behalf will be sufficiently accounted for by 
what I have already stated, and am farther 
about to state, as also why he sculks without a 
name. For he has either, like Saumaise, basely 
sold this cry of his to the royal blood for a paltry 
sum of money, or feels himself completely 
ashamed of his infamous doctrines, or is con- 
scious of an abandoned and profligate life ; in 
any of which cases we cannot be surprised, that 
he should be anxious to remain undetected : or 
perhaps he wishes to reserve to himself the privi- 
lege of deserting kings, if he scent greater profit 
in any other quarter, and of offering his services 
to some future republic — even so, not without the 



MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 



27 



precedent of his vaunted Saumaise, who dazzled 
by the glitter of gold # went over in his old age 
from the right discipline of the church to that 
of bishops, from the popular party to that of 
kings. You are not hidden, therefore, you 
yelping cottage-cur : your lurking-corner will 
not avail you : you shall be dragged out, trust 
me, and all your petty artifices exposed :t you 
shall be constrained, in fine, to allow for the 
rest of your life, either that I am not blind, or 
at least that I have eyes for you. 

Who then, and what sort of a creature is this 
fellow ; and by what hopes, bribes, and tempta- 
tions he has been induced to come forward in 
the royal cause — it is a loose watering-place 
kind of story ^ — I will now state to you. 



* Affulgente lucro. This idea had previously occurred in the 
Si dolosi spes refulserit nummi borrowed from Persius' Pro- 
logue, v. 12, in our author's epigram, * In Salmasii Hun- 
dredam' (Pro Pop: Anglic. Def. viii.) of which some account^ 
with a translation, is given in a subsequent note. 

f The Plutonis galea of the original was fabricated by the 
Cyclops, during the war of the Gods and the Titans, for the 
Monarch of the shades, and like Gyges ' ring had the faculty of 
rendering it's wearer invisible. (Apollod. I. ii. 1.) It was 
lent to Perseus, to aid him in his attack upon the Gorgon s. 
(Id. ib. II. iv. 2.) Dr. Symmons, in the Preface to the second 
Edition of his ( Life of Milton,' p. xiii. traces it, with classical 
felicity of allusion, into the possession of modern Reviewers. 

% Milesia aut Baiana fabula. The Milesiacs or Milesian 
Fables had their origin in Miletus, a luxurious town of Ionia. 
Aristides was the most celebrated author of these licentious 
fictions. Plutarch, in his Life of Crassus, calls them <exoA#s-« 



28 

There is one More,* half Frenchman and 

&&X101. They are spoken of by Julius Capitolinus in Clod. Alb., 
Apuleius &c. and Baiae may be regarded as the Miletus of 
Italy. 

* This frail and popular preacher, the ' Dodd (as he has been 
ealled) of his day,' was a Scottish presbyterian clergyman, whom 
Milton suspected to have written the ' Regit Sanguinis Clamor 
&c.' in 1652. But that work was really composed by Peter Du 
Moulin the younger, afterward Prebendary of Canterbury, and 
by him transmitted to More's friend Saumaise for publication. 
With good critical talents, witty and learned and eloquent, 
More was at the same time light, caustic, ambitious, and 
fantastical, hardly approving any thing but his own works 
and their admirers, and very little versed in the history of 
his species. How must it have galled him to have been 
thus pursued through his opprobrious privacies, linked by a 
sort of Me^entian artifice to Saumaise's dead body, and dragged 
in triumph at the victor's chariot- wheels ! It may be added, 
that he was a correspondent of Archbishop Usher, who ap- 
pears to have thought well of him. This we learn from the 
Dedication of his i Panegyric on Calvin* to that Prelate, 
whom he characterises in the terms applied by Gregory of 
Nazianzum to Athanasius ; mips rots iwcwaTt^, v^rtorspos 

U/BCiy reiq o& feurtocfyvtri [AxyvyT^—vfyfihos yjtv toic, tpyot$ f tcctthvos 

is TU tpp.OVil[AO!.Ti' XCU TW (J!jiV etfiTr,V aZfoTlTOV, T>}V tVTVfclM £l 3C0H 

Xiu* ivxpowrov, ac denique — zyyifaxov to tto\$ 9 ctyy iXixwripot m» 
&XV6HCV. In this panegyric, he attacks Grotius for having 
called Calvin, p. 83, Serveti Exustor, and for disgracefully 
lending himself to the views of the Romish court. The Letter 
to Farellus, in which (according to Grotius) Calvin boasted 
effecturum sese, si quid sua valeret auctoritas, ne Servetus vivus 
abiret, More contends was never produced ; and the invidious 
insinuation, about the Genevese Reformer's cook, he repels by 
referring to the pallidulum os of his portrait ; hoc satis faciei , 
ut studiosissimum sed non cupediarum, nee nisi librorum hel* 
luonem intelligat : non pinguem, non adipejartum, quad mo* 



milton's second defence. 29 

half Scot (that the whole infamy of the man 
may not press too heavily upon a single race, or 
nation) a worthless scoundrel, on the accumu- 
lated testimony not only of indifferent persons, 
but what is much more conclusive, of his own 
friends, whom he has entirely alienated by his 
villainies, a faithless lying ungrateful scurrilous 
wretch, the constant calumniator both of men 
and women, to whose chastity as well as cha- 
racter he is a decided enemy. This fellow first 
became known — for I will pass over the ob- 
scurity of his early life — as a teacher of Greek 
at Geneva : yet, though he had often explained 
his own name* in that language to his pupils, 

nachis attribui solet ut in adagium abierit, non rubricato hi 
pustulas vultu, non gemmanti et quasi fruticanti naso, sed 
qualem Calvinum oportuit inveniet. It is admitted however, 
elsewhere, that he might casually have so expressed himself; and 
I believe it is not doubted, that he was the cause of his former 
friend's being thrown into a dungeon, and wished for his con- 
demnation, though he might not subsequently have objected to 
a mitigation of his punishment. After the censure, which 
More passes upon Grotius' * Annotations on the Scriptures,' 
it is not a little curious that twenty years afterward he should 
pilfer from them so copiously. He closes his work of flattery 
with the wretched and imperfect anagram of Respublica Gene- 
vensis, " Gens sub ccelis vere pia." There is a good note upon 
him in Warton, ib. 486. 

Another Du Moulin was the author of a rare Calvinistic 
Tract, entitled ' Moral Reflexions upon the Number of the 
Elect, proving plainly from Scripture-Evidence, &c. that not 
One in a Hundred Thousand (nay, probably, not One in a 
Million) from Adam down to our time, shall be saved V 1 680. 

* M^pe^ fatuus. On the word {tfopa&n, Matt. v. 13. B. P, 



SO milton's second defence. 

he could not unlearn the vicious folly which it 
implies ; but, in spite of his consciousness of so 
many crimes hitherto perhaps undiscovered, he 
had the frantic ambition to offer himself a can- 
didate for ordination, and to pollute with his 
infamous morals the Christian church. He was 
quickly, however, exposed to the censure of 
the presbytery as an amorous coxcomb, branded 
with many vicious practices and many hete- 
rodox opinions, which though he meanly dis- 

Tingstadius observes, correcting Rosenmiiller's remark upon the 
passage, that " anciently savour was a metaphor of wisdom 
and virtue, and insipidity of folly aud vice;" for which he 
refers to Job vi. 6. and Prov. xi. 22., the usage of the Arabian 
poets, and the etymology of the Romans, who cc derived sapi- 
entia from sapor, and by insipidus and insulsus described a 
foolish and vicious man/' Schleusner himself does not escape 
his censure (See his f Mise. Philol. Remarks on the Swedish Ver- 
sion of St. Matthew,' Upsal.) So the Schol. on Eurip. Androm. 
675. explains ywaiKu ^/&'p«iv»c-«y by 5repsys<r«f : and Demosthenes 
uses a.voy>Toi of women disposed jc©<s<v i n uv fiuXaivrcu — quasi 
scilicet idem esset vitio adjungi, ac sanje menti valedicere. 
(Wakef. in loc. Silv. Crit. iv. 14.) See also the Proverbs, 
passim, 

Shenstone is said to have returned thanks to heaven, that * his 
name was not obnoxious to a pun.' What Milton, an artist 
of singular eminence in that way, might have made of it, we 
cannot conjecture ; but the name of More was too inviting to 
be resisted. The Mulberry-tree (Morns) particularly that of 
Pyramus and Thisbe, and the motley harlequin (Mono), not 
to mention the bene morata and morigera of the celebrated 
epigram, with Momus &c, as we shall observe in the sequel, 
are in their turns pressed into the service. Of these, however, 
some (it will appear) are wholly untranslateable, 
4 



MILTON 5 S SECOND DEFENCE, 



31 



avowed, he impiously continued to retain. At 
last, he was detected in adultery. He had been 
strongly attached to a servant-girl* of one of 
his hosts ; and continued to follow her, even 
after she was married to another. The neigh- 
bours had often seen them enter together, solum 
cum sold, into a small garden-house. " All 
this," you say, " is no proof of adultery : they 
might go thither for any other purpose." True, 
he might be conversing with her perhaps on 
horticulture, and giving the curious damsel, 
anxious for information, a lecture upon gar- 
dens — those, for instance, of Alcinoiis, or Ado- 

* More in his reply, as it may be inferred from Milton's re- 
joinder, claimed at a subsequent period to be denominated c &z- 
crarum Historiarum Professor ; * a designation, justified by a 
request in one of the letters in the Sarravian collection, dated 
1648 : que la qualite de Prqfesseur en Philosophie fut un peu 
relevee de now, honorable, comme de Philosophie Sacree on de 
Metaphysique Extraordinaire ; en un mot, tel quit sera juge 
a propos, d Jin qu'on ne lui imputat pas d' etre dechu entiere~ 
ment. This gives rise to some severe remarks of Milton, in the 
Pro se Defensio, upon both parts of his new title, as bestowed 
on a man of profligate morals and notorious falsehood. He 
takes the opportunity, likewise, of vindicating himself from the 
imputation of having depreciated the Greek language, for which 
he professes the greatest regard. In the same tract, also, he 
calls More mulierosum et notce incontinentia hominem ; and 
details in several passages the story of this c servant-girl,' 
Claudia Pelletta, both which names furnish him with materials 
for his favourite classical and paronomastic allusions. The 
charge, too, of suspicious solus cum sold interviews with her, 
in ' the garden-house,' is there repeated. 



32 milton's second defence. 

nis :* he might now point out the beauties of a 
particular bed, now covet the shade, now enter 
into a practical disquisition upon engrafting, 
&c. Assuredly, I admit it. Of this, however, 
he could not convince the presbytery, so as to 
elude their censure and suspension ; and the 
heads of the charge, as well as of others of a 
similar kind, are to this day preserved in the 
public library of that city. In the mean time, 
before the affair became public, being invited 
into Holland (through the management of Sau- 
maise) by the Gallic church at Middleburg, to 
the great disgust of Spanheim, a pastor of ap- 
proved learning and integrity who had known 
him thoroughly at Geneva,! he at length with 

* The garden (pot. ' orchard/ or as Milton spells the word, 
orchat, from the Gr. ep^asros : See Pegge's i A?w?iymiana,' vi. 95.) 
of Alcinoiis is beautifully described by Homer, Od. vii. 112— 
132, with it's y.e<r{x>r,Tcci vrpwwt, or c beds of all various herbs for 
ever green/ like the c nuptial bed of espoused Eve' (P. L. iv» 
710.) 

The A^avi^ Kyzti, consecrated to Venus on account of her 
handsome paramour, are explained by Erasmus, in his ' Adages,' 
as referring to res levicidcs parumque frugiferce, et ad brevem 
prcBseniemque modb fructiim idonecs. Of the passage which 
follows, Jicui morum inserere^ complures inde sycomoros quam 
citissime enasci, &c. we cannot regret the impossibility of pre- 
senting an adequate version to the English reader. Our term 
e bed,' however, is proportionally more expressive than the 
original areolce. 

i In this stoiy, Milton seems to have made some slight mis- 
take, More, whose learning procured him the offer of several 



milton's second defence. S3 

the utmost difficulty procured some cold formal 
* Letters Testimonial/ as they are called, from 
that place — on condition of his immediate de- 
parture 5 several indeed thinking it very wrong, 
that the church should bear testimony in favour 
of such a profligate, but the majority deeming 
any thing rather to be borne than the profligate 
himself. On his arrival in Holland, he waited 
upon Saumaise, and there cast a lustful eye 
upon Pontia, his wife's maid ; for the gentleman 
is always partial to servant-girls. Thencefor- 
ward, he began assiduously to cultivate Sau- 
maise, and as often as occasion served, Pontia 
too. Whether indeed Saumaise, won by the 
convenience and fulsomeness of the fellow, or 
More thinking that he should have better and 
more frequent opportunities of seeing Pontia, 
first introduced mention of Milton's * Reply,' 

literary appointments, had obtained Letters Testimonial with 
some other view, six or seven years previously to his final 
departure from Geneva ; and upon that occasion being obliged 
to apply for Letters Recommendatory, by going round to indi- 
viduals and importuning them for their signatures, he got (not, 
as in the former case, Jrigidulas but) frigidissimas litems, 
granted chiefly for the credit of his profession and the removal 
of himself. These however, under the pretext of not having 
been able to procure a copy, he suppressed. See the ( Pro Se 
Defensio,' where Milton takes an opportunity, in his copious 
and animated account of this affair, of estimating the weight of 
Testimonials in general, and of paying a fine compliment to the 
small republic of Geneva. He there, likewise, renews the alle- 
gation, which immediately follows : Ancillis, ut videtur, quo~ 
canque vadis, nullum abs te refugium est. 

D 



54 milton's second defence. 

I am not competent to decide. However that 
be, More undertakes Saumaise's defence, and 
Saumaise promises More a divinity-chair in that 
city,* by his interest, in return : More likewise 
promising himself the indulgence of carrying oa 
a sly intrigue with Pontia into the bargain. 
Under the pretence of consulting his principal 
upon this subject, he frequents his house day 
and night. And now, as Pyramus was for- 
merly transformed into a mulberry-tree, behold 
our mulberry-tree t suddenly transformed into 
a Pyramus, transplanted from Geneva to Baby- 

* Leyden. 

f Lat. Morus. This, as it might be expected, is not anew 
pun. At Losely, the seat of the Mores (near Godalmin, in 
Surrey) we learn from Manning's f History and Antiquities 
of that County,' p. 98, were sundry notable devices: and 
among the rest, " in the corner of the great withdrawing- 
room, is inserted a Mulberry-tree, on the side of which is this 
inscription, Morus tarde moriens ; on the other, Morum cito 
moriturum" meaning respectively, f The tree perennial,' 
* Perishing the fruit.' From the Moria Encomium of Eras- 
mus, indeed, to the Honor es Mutant Mores of Jo Miller, the 
word is fertile in witticisms. In Vossius* Letters to Hein- 
sius, this unlucky name appears under the alias of iEthiops 
(Maurus.) 

In the Genevensis in Babylonium t which follows, we find 
an antithesis between the churches of Geneva and Rome, 
which latter city has been deemed by most commentators the 
anti-type of the Babylon in the Apocalypse; a fortunate cir- 
cumstance, as Milton would esteem it, with reference to the 
scene of Pyramus' story. We may be permitted indeed to 
wonder, that no allusion is made to the fornication and har- 
lotry of that city, Rev. xvii. 2, 5, &c. 



milton's second defence. 35 

Ion ; but luckier, though less deserving than 
that youth, he can converse with his Pontia as 
he pleases under the same roof: no need to* 
seek a cranny in the wall. He promises her 
marriage, under that engagement he debauches 
her, and thus at once (I shudder to state it, but 
it must be stated) he violates the purity of his 
profession, and the rites of hospitality. From 
this intercourse sprung a monstrous and unna- 
tural compound birth. Both the male and the 
female conceived ; Pontia a little Morell, des- 
tined long afterward to exercise the patience of 
Saumaise, the Plinian exercise-writer ; r* and 
More an empty wind-egg, whence issued this 
flatulent • Cry of the Royal Blood? at first 
indeed holding out the prospect of an agree- 
able treat to our hungry royalists in Belgium, 
but proving to their regret, upon breaking the 
shell, addle and rotten. For More swelling 
with his conception, and fancying that he had 
curried favour with all the Orange-faction, 
greedily swallowed in anticipation whole pro- 

* Saumaise's celebrated Work, entitled c Exercitatiortes Pli- 
niance in Cai, Jul. Solin. Poly hist.' was first published at 
Paris in 1629. The subject of this commentary, a miserable 
compilation of historical and geographical remarks on different 
countries, abounds with extracts from Pliny the Naturalist to 
«uch a degree, as to have procured for it's author the name- of 
' Plinii Simla' 

The term f conception,' occurring below, Milton would pro- 
bably have used, if he had written in English, instead- of th« 
less equivocal word fcetu. 

© 2 



56 milton's second defence. 

fessorships; and had wickedly abandoned his 
Pontia, now pregnant, as a servant and a beggar. 
Upon this she applied to the synod and the 
magistracy, with complaints of his neglect and 
breach of faith. Thus the story got abroad, 
and was long a subject of joke and ridicule at 
almost every table and in every party. Whence 
some one, no bungler in epigram, threw off the 
following distich : 

< Pontia's with child by More — but why this fuss? 
She is well wzoral'd, and morigerous.' * 

* The whole affair of this English Abigail, Pontia, or (as 
More himself, in his Reply, taught Milton more correctly to call 
her) Bontia — see his f Pro Se Defensio * — after every deduc* 
tion for the virulence of our author's invective, appears to have 
been a most disgraceful piece of business. It is not perhaps 
worth the more ample investigation, which Milton in his sub- 
sequent Rejoinder has bestowed upon it, orWarton's very prolix 
note, pp. 485 — 487. It's best result was the present Audoenie 
epigram, which M. Colomies emphatically calls un sanglant 
distique, but of which the poignancy (depending on a verbal 
conceit) is with difficulty transferable to our language. My 
attempt in the text, aiming to be literal, is I fear obscure ; to 
Dr. Symmons the reader will be indebted for a superior 
version : 

f Though Pontia's big, cease, dames, to call her w— e : 
You bear a spotless name, buteshe bears — More/ 

(p. 411, Note*.) 

Madame Saumaise has not wholly escaped the suspicion of 
having, like Juno, been actuated by a sense of the spreta 
injuria Jbrmce in the prosecution, which she instituted against 
More upon the occasion. See Thurloe's f State- Papers,' ii 
§94., where mention is made also of Ulack the printer, in- 



MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE, 3? 

Poor Pontia alone found it no joke : but all her 
complaints proved ineffectual. The Cry of the 

troduced below. — " De JEthiope (More) et Angld" says Is, 
Vossius to Nic. Heinsius,in a letter dated ' Amst. 1652/ lepida 
sunt et f estiva, quce reponis ; sed nunc negant ea vera esse, et 
sparsa esse ab malevolis quibusdam. Sane constat mihi Anglam 
istam omnes JEihiopi reddidisse amatorias suas. Liter ipsum 
et Salmasium lis Jbrsan orietur (qucenam, enim, inter tales 
j)ossit esse diuturna concordia ?) propter librum quendam hie 
excusam, cui titulus * Clamor Sanguinis Regii in Ccelum.* 
Scriptus ille videtur a quodam anonymo Anglo, transmissus 
verb Salmasio, divulgatus verb ad JEthiope. Propter sexaginta 
exemplaria, quce promisit typographus, inter ipsos est con- 
tentio. JEthiops ea sibi vult vindicare, decrevitque sex exem- 
plaria inscribere Regince nostrce, totidem verb Regi Anglice ; 
alia item sex Gallice Regi, &c. &c. 

Vossius seems to have known the secret History of this cele- 
brated Tract very correctly ; as the * anonymous Author/ Du 
Moulin, in his ? Reply to a Person of Honour,' &c. 4to. 
Lond. 1675, actually owns the work; as well as in the 
Prefatory Epistle, intended to accompany his furious Iambics 
against Milton in their second edition with the ( Regii San- 
guinis Clamor.* His illiberal sneers at Milton's blindness, and 
his mean exultation at beholding another smarting in his stead, 
display at once as Dr. Symmons has observed, the most selfish 
cowardice, and the most egregious want of principle. And yet 
his loyalty raised him, in those times, to a high station in our 
church ! Compared with him, More was, indeed, a liberal and 
honourable antagonist. From the 'Pro Se Defensio 9 how- 
ever of Milton it appears, that the latter wrote the Prefatory 
Epistle to Charles II., and even subscribed his name to it in 
many of the copies instead of that of A. Ulack. 

More afterward prosecuted the young woman, and her master 
Salmasius with his whole family. His resentment, fully pro- 
portionate to his preceding intimacy, Jed him meanly to disclose 






$$ milton's second defence. 

Royal Blood easily drowned those of a weak 
ruined girl, complaining of her seduction. Sau- 
maise too, shocked at the injury and disgrace 
inflicted upon himself and his whole family, 
finding himself duped by his dear friend and 
encomiast and a second time laid at the mercy 
of his enemy, and perhaps likewise considering 
the event as a misfortune super-added to what 
he had already incurred in the royal cause, sunk 
shortly afterward into the grave. But I antici- 

numerous little incidents relative to his old patron and his 
Xanthippe during an occasional dinner (perhaps given for the 
purpose) to Saumaise's bitter enemy , Isaac Vossius. A dis- 
gusting recital of one of them is contained in a subsequent Letter 
from Heinsius dated f Venice, 1653;' where the whipping 
referred to by Warton in his Note, the crime, and the confede- 
rate {Hebe Caledonia) are introduced in minute detail. See 
also a Letter from Vossius to Heinsius, stating Saumaise's 
wish that ' More would marry his wife's light-charactered 
attendant/ with More's sturdy refusal, and a consequent squab- 
ble between him and his Dulcinea, Burm. Syll. iii. 651. More 
had not scrupled to represent the lady as unfaithful to her hus- 
band's bed ; and as Saumaise had triumphantly disarmed of all 
it's virulence the name e Alastor * bestowed upon him, by dis- 
covering that it had somewhere been given to Jupiter, they 
quaintly agree to bestow upon him the latter title, with itV 
Lybian adjunct of ' Amnion.' In the legal investigation of 
the quarrel, it seems to have been the great object of Madame 
Saumaise and her advocates, to establish by testimony the 
incontinence of More; and their good fortune to find, as they 
supposed, proof unius alteriusve ancillce quibus vim inferre 
voluerit. It is amusing to read these elassical scurrilities of the 
animce calestes of literature. 



milton's second defence. 39 

pate. Previously to his death, like Salmacis of 
old (for their stones, as well as their names,* 
have a strong resemblance) unconscious that he 
had clasped in his arms an hermaphrodite com- 
petent to the functions of both sexes, and not 
knowing what More had begotten in his house, 
Saumaise fondles what he brought forth by the 
press — I mean the volume, in which he finds 
himself so often denominated c the Great,' and 
peruses with so much complacency t compli- 

* Here the pun upon the names is more obvious in the 
original, Salmasius and Salmacis. 

t This instance of vanity was too gross, to be lightly dis- 
missed : it is again brought forward in a subsequent page. And 
yet Saumaise, in a letter to J, F. Gronovius (dated, it is true, 
fifteen years before, in 1637) says, u Suffercti sufflatique quan- 
tum volent emendicatis laudibus ambulent, dum ego vix Jerre 
queo — non dico, meritas, quid enim mereor? sed ne modicas 
quidem et h benevolentibus ultro tributas ;" and goes on to 
request his friend to abstain from compliments, that they may 
deal with one another after the old Roman fashion, " et hujus- 
modi ineptias ex animo nostro primum, deinde ex scriptis dele- 
amus!" (Salm. Epist. lxxvii.) 

But Colomesius, in his ( Recueil de Particularity , 9 has 
preserved an anecdote (quoted, with too many others of a 
similar kind by the amusing Menckenius, in his f De Charla- 
tanerid Eruditorum,' p. 52, n.) which deposes strongly against 
the sincerity of this deprecatory language : ( Messieurs Gaul- 
min 9 Saumaise , et Maussac se rencontrans un jour a la Bib- 
lioiheque Royale, le premier dit aux deux autres ; " Je pense 
que nous pourrions bien tous trots tenir tite a tous les Savans 
de V Europe? A quoi M. de Saumaise repondit ; " Joignez 
a tout ce quHl y a de Savans au monde, et vous et M. de Maus- 
sac, je vous tiendrai tite tout seul" (Opuscul., Ultraj. 1669, 
P- 98.) 



40 milton's second defence. 

merits, by the world pronounced ridiculous and 
absurd. He, therefore, instantly sets out to the 
printer's ; and, in his fruitless effort to preserve 
the fame that has long been slipping through 
his ringers, descends to play the humble mid- 
wife's part in obstetricating to those praises, or 
rather those fulsome adulations, for which he 
miserably cringes to such sycophants as this. 
For this labour, one Ulack seemed a most com- 
modious accomplice. Him he easily persuades, 
not only to undertake the printing of the book 
in question, for which he would have incurred 
no censure ; but also to subscribe his name, as 
the author, to an Epistle addressed indeed to 
Charles (II. ), but crammed with abuse and 
scurrilities against me, who had never set my 
eyes upon the fellow. To prevent any surprise 
at his pliability in thus consenting most impu- 
dently to assault me without provocation, and 
taking another's extravagances so readily upon 
his own shoulders, I will here give some ac- 
count of his treatment of others, so far as I 
have been able to make it out. 

Ulack — whence he sprung, heaven knows — 
is a sort of itinerant pamphlet-vender, a noto- 
rious scoundrel and spendthrift. For some time 
he sold books clandestinely in London, whence 
after innumerable shifts he was obliged pre- 
cipitately to decamp, over head and ears in 
debt. At Paris, he quickly revived his old cha- 
racter for dishonesty and profligacy, in the Rue 



MILTON^S SECOND DEFENCE. 41 

St. Jacques ; of which likewise he was presently 
constrained to take a French leave, without 
daring ever to come near it again : and now, if 
any one wants an unprincipled and venal black- 
guard, he is to be found white- washed as a 
printer at the Hague. To prove how little 
stress is to be laid upon any thing he says or 
does, how promptly for the least pittance of 
money he will profane things the most sacred, 
and how little connexion public feeling (as 
might have been supposed) had with his tirade 
against myself, I will produce evidence out of 
his own mouth. Having observed that my 
c Reply to Saumaise' had been a profitable con- 
cern to the booksellers engaged in it, he writes 
to some of my friends* to request that c they 
would prevail upon me, if I had any thing ready 
for the press, to entrust it to his management ; 
and he would take care, it should be executed 
with much greater correctness than my former 
tract.' I answered, through the same channel, 
that ' I had nothing at that time in hand, which 
required the exercise of his art.' When lo! 
within a short period he makes his appearance 
as not only the printer, but the author too by 

* Hartlib, to whom Milton's ' Tractate on Education' is ad- 
dressed ; as appears from his relation of the same story, in his 
subsequent ' Pro Se Defensio : ' in which, by the bye, occurs a 
host of puns, founded upon Ulack's f Tables of Sines, Tan- 
gents, and Secants/ setting all translation and even paraphrase 
at defiance. 



4$ MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 

adoption, of a most scurrilous composition 
against the very man, to whom he had so re- 
cently and so officiously tendered his services. 
My friends indignantly expostulate with him. 
The impudent fellow writes back, that 6 he is 
astonished at their simplicity and inexperience, 
in expecting or demanding any regard to honour 
or honesty from one reduced like himself to 
such shifts for a livelihood ! * that i he received 
the Letter in question with a book from Sau- 
maise, who entreated him as a favour to do 
what he had done!' and that, ' if either Mil- 
ton or any other person chose to make use of 
his press in reply, he should not in the least 
scruple* to assist them in the publication!' — 
that is, either against Saumaise or against 
Charles, for against them alone could he sup- 
pose that such a reply would be directed. In 
short, you see what he is. 

I now proceed to the rest ; for more than one 
have lent their assistance in patching up this 
mock-tragedy of c The Royal Cry* against me. 

First then, as usual, the Dramatis Persona ■ 

Cry, who opens the business. 
Ulack, the blackguard ; or rather 
Saumaise, disguised in the mask and cloak of Ulack, 
the blackguard. 

* From the often-quoted ' Pro Se Defensio* it appears, that 
mack's words were, " Quid ad typographos tarn magnce con- 
trover site, nisi ut operant suam ?" * Why then, Ulack,' as Mil- 
ton immediately asks, " Jamosissimo libello tuiim subscriber e 
prqfessum nomen, quasi auctor esses, debuisti?" 



mixton's second defence, 43 

Two Verse-mongers^ muddled with stale beer.* 
More, an adulterer and a seducer. 

A charming party, upon my word! A most 
respectable set of competitors for me ! Such as 
they are however, since our cause can hardly 
be opposed by any of a more respectable cha- 
racter, I will attack them in succession : only 
beforehand requesting those, who may deem 
my refutation occasionally deficient in gravity, 
to consider that I have to do, not with a grave 
adversary, but with a gang of strollers ; in re- 
ference to whom I have sometimes thought it 
right to lower the tone of my reply, beneath 
it's proper dignity, t to the level of my antago- 
nists. 



* This dramatising of the matter recurs, as a favourite figure, 
in the ' Pro Se Defensio : * as do also the Verse-mongers, under 
the name of Versijicatores, who had affixed two copies of verses 
to the * Regii Sanguinis Clamor ; ' the first an Alcaic Ode of 
Thanks to Saumaise, and the latter ' In Impurissimum Nebu- 
lonem Johannem Milionum Parricidarum et Parricidii Advo* 
catum, 9 both very indifferent productions. 

f A better principle is laid down in the Si ego dignus contu- 
tnelid hac maxime, at tu indignus quijaceres tamen, of Terenee ; 
in a passage of Demosthenes, * n*p* "Lt^m*/ 0*»» ^ xip <r* ree, 

trpop-wwrec, XtyvVy oivtoc, a 7Cyca-m.cvTU.c, su,xvtm $c\u z-fovjpji<r&xi teyty, 
(^«.); and even in what is above stated with regard to Christina's 
treatment of Saumaise, during the latter part of his stay at 
her court. This, however, is again adduced by Milton, for his 
own justification, in the ' Pro Se Defensio f and the several 
gross ambiguities founded on the name of More &c. are, un- 
doubtedly, so " inconsistent with our author's usual delicacy," 
as to demand some sort of apology. (Warton, ib. p. 487-) 



44 MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 

c The Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven 

AGAINST THE ENGLISH PARRICIDES.' Could VOU 

have proved this blood, More, to have been un- 
justly shed,* the thing might be credible : but 
now, as in the early days of the Reformation 
the monks from a dearth of argument had re- 
course to spectres and other prodigies, so you 
for lack of better sounds recur to c cries ' that 
never " met the ear," and all the obsolete arts 
of the monastery. That we any of us hear 
voices from above, you are far from believing ; 
but I can easily believe that you may, as you 
state, have heard c cries * from below. But tell 
us now, prithee, who heard this c Cry of the 
Royal Blood?' You did. Ridiculous! For, 
first, you never hear any thing good.t Whereas 
the ' Cry * that rises c to heaven,' if heard by 
any but the Deity, is heard only by the just and 
the pure ; as alone capable, through their own 
exemption from divine wrath, of denouncing it 
against the wicked. Why, then, should you be 
so privileged ? — To enable you to 

•censure crimes, yourself a criminal ? 

For this pretended c Cry to heaven * you mus£ 
have heard, about the very time of your intrigue 
with Pontia. There are many obstacles, More, 

• Alluding to Gen. iv. 10. " The voice of thy brother's 
blood crieth unto me from the ground." 

t The double meaning of maU audis eludes the English 
translator. 



MILTON*S SECOND DEFENCE. 45 

many noises both within and around you, which 
prevent your hearing ( cries ' of this kind on 
their way ' to heaven ; ' and, among others, 
the collective s cry,' which is lifted up to hea- 
ven against yourself-— the 6 cry,' if you are not 
aware of it, of your garden-adultress, com- 
plaining that she was led astray chiefly by thi 
example of you her pastor ; the ' cry ' of her 
husband, whose bed you polluted ; the c cry * 
of Pontia, with whom you broke your plighted 
faith ; the c cry ' of the bantling, if there be 
one, whom you begot to shame, and cast off to 
misery. If you can be deaf to all these c cries,' 
it is impossible you should hear that of * the 
royal blood. 5 The work then, instead of * The 
Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven/ may 
with greater propriety be entitled, ' The 
Neighing of lascivious More to Pontia.' 

The Epistle which immediately follows the 
title-page, a tiresome piece of affectation, is 
taken up partly with compliments to Charles, 
and partly with invectives against Milton. From 
the very first sentence you may discover the 
author. The realms of Charles have passed 
into the sacrilegious hands of parricides, and (to 
mis-use one of Tertullian s terms,* for lack of a 

* The vox Tertidliancea might, in the minds of many, prove 
that c the fustian proceeded from the pen of Saumaise ;' as his 
• Notce in Tertullianum de Pallio* (Par. 1622, and Lugd. 
Bat. 1656.) and his projected ' Annotationes in Tertulliani 
Apologeticum,' &c. evince, that he must have been well versed, 



46 MILTON 'S SECOND DEFENCE* 

better) Dei-cides. Whether this fustian pro- 
ceeds from the pen of Saumaise, of More, or of 
Ulack, it little matters: but shortly afterward 
follows what Charles himself ought to resent, 
while by others it can only be derided. 

The man does not breathe, who is more 
anxiow for the happiness of Charles. What! 
you, who offered your pen and your press to his 
enemies, you * most anxious for his happiness !'' 
Wretched indeed must that prince be, who is so 
completely abandoned by his friends, that a 
shabby printer shall dare to compare himself to 
his few intimates who remain ! Most wretched 
he, whose steadiest adherents are equalled in 
fidelity by Ulack the faithless ! Could any thing 
have been uttered more arrogantly of himself, 
pr more contemptuously of the king and his 
friends ? Neither is it less absurd, to introduce 
a low mechanic philosophising upon royal vir- 
tues and other subjects of importance in a 
manner, such as it is, not to be exceeded by 
Saumaise, or even by More himself. In this, 
as well as in many other places indeed, Sau- 
maise obviously shows himself, however deeply 
versed in books, a very child in judgement and 
experience: for though he might have read, 
that the chief magistrates in the admirable 
government of Sparta used to take away any 

in the phraseology of that writer. It's meaning involves the 
profane parallel, more copiously illustrated in a following note. 



milton's second defence. 



4? 



chance-apophthegm from the worthless, and 
confer it by lot upon a more deserving citizen,* 
he is so ignorant of all decorum as to permit* 
on the reversed plan, sentiments in his own 
opinion honourable and just to be ascribed to a 
thorough rascal. Cheerly, Charles : Ulack the 
knave, such is his trust in God, bids you cheer 
up ! Lose not the advantage of so many misfor- 
tunes ; Ulack the pennyless prodigal, who has 
lost all bis advantages of fortune, if he ever had 
any, encourages you not to lose the advantage 
of your misfortunes ! Profit by the rigour of 
your estate : Can you do otherwise with such an 
adviser, who has for so many years, by hook or 
by crook, profited by the estates of others ? 
You are deeply engulfed in wisdom, gulp it down : 
So exhorts, so directs you this accomplished 
tutor of kings, Ulack " the abyss of drink ;" 
who with inky hands seizing his leathern flaggon 
among his guzzling comrades, swills down 6 a 
health to your improvement in wisdom!* So, 
I say, exhorts you your Ulack, subscribing 
moreover his name to his exhortation, which 
Saumaise and More and your other champions 
are either from their cowardice afraid, or from 
their pride ashamed, to do; wise and brave 
always, whenever you stand in need of their 

* EvtyxctvTcs met ctpirw yvuftw paybox, return pit unehfyfTo, 
(SC. tH AttKWte,} TTtpttXofA/tm & TVTiS, ' nipuS-iiKX* htf>» x.a*#$ fit- 

Q^kcti. (Plutarch. Apophthegm. Lacon, $\*Q. »«. I. 93& 8m 
Ed. Wyttenb. Oxon, 1795.) 



4& milton's second defence, 

counsel or their protection, under the signature 
and at the hazard of others, not their own. Let 
then this empty babbler, whoever he is, cease 
to brag of his vigour and spirit in coming for- 
ward : while his man of unparallelled genius , 
forsooth ! forbears to give his illustrious signa- 
ture — not daring even to dedicate unto Charles 
a book, which professes to * avenge the royal 
blood/ except through the medium of Ulack his 
representative ; and poorly satisfied with en- 
treating a king, in the words of a printer, to 
permit a nameless book to be inscribed to his 
name I 

Having now done with Charles, he makes 
ready for his threatened attack upon me. After 
this introduction, the famous Saumaise will 
himself blow his terrible trumpet. You are the 
harbinger of health, and announce a new species 
of musical concert in preparation : for what 
symphony more suitable to this terrible trumpet, 

whenever it begins to roar, than a roaring \ 

I would not, however, have Saumaise puff up his 
cheeks too much ; for they will only, believe 
me, more temptingly invite slaps, which will 
harmoniously re-echo the delightful jingle of 
vour c famous Saumaise y * on both sides. But 
you go on to chatter : — Who has neither equal r , 
nor second, in the whole world of science and of 

* 'Famous' fortunately jingles with Saumaise, nearly as 
well as ScivfAjua-ioc, with Salmasius in the original, and that 
without the introduction of a foreign language. 



milton's second defence. 49 

letters ; — gracious heaven ! And ye, insulted 
names of scholars! that you should thus be 
rated beneath a mere book-louse, with his hopes 
and concerns confined within the limits of an 
index; who would be completely distanced, 
if compared with any men of real learning ! 
This could surely never have been so stupidly 
advanced, except by some miserable driveller 
beneath the level of even Ulack himself. — And 
who has already exerted his stupendous and infi- 
nite erudition, in combination with a genius 
perfectly divine, in the defence of your majesty. 
If it be remembered (as I stated above) that 
Saumaise himself carried this letter, written 
either by his own or some other unacknow- 
ledged hand, and begged the obsequious printer 
to set his name to it, as the author himself did 
not choose to do so ; the mean and abject 
nature of the man thus giving currency to his 
own praises, and courting the exaggerated 
panegyric* of such a dull encomiast, will clearly 
appear. — For, while many vainly abuse his 
immortal work, it is a subject of amazement to 
lawyers, that a Frenchman should have so readily 
comprehended and explained the concerns, laws, 
statutes, and other public instruments of England, 
&c. On the other hand, from the evidence of 
our own lawyers I have abundantly demon- 
strated, what an ass and a parrott he is in these 

* Emendicatis laudibus I See a former note, 
t Pica, as he stiles him, in his Epigram upon Saumaise's 

E 



SO milton's second defence. 

respects. But he is now projecting a new im- 
pression against the rebels, which will at once 
stop the mouths of all carping grammarians, and 
give Milton in particular the thrashing he so 
richly deserves. You therefore, like the little 
herald-fish,* precede the shark Saumaise, in his 



awkward attempts to latinise some of our forensic terms, viz. 
i Countie-.court,' ' Hundred/ &c. This occurs, with much of 
the abundant demonstration here referred to, in his Pro Po- 
pzdo Anglicano Def., viii., and is happily translated by Dr. 
Symmons in his Life of Milton, p. 366. It implies some 
"clippings of the Corinthian metal" to try to mend it; but his 
candor will forgive me, though with his gold I combine Wash- 
ington's brass in the experiment. 

e Who to our English tuned Saumaise's throat, 
And taught the pie Hundreda's foreign note ? 
A hundred golden Jameses did the feat, 
An outlaw'd king's last stock : he wish'd to eat^ 
Let the false glare of gold allure his hope ; 
And he whose stormy voice late shook the Pope, 
And threaten'd Anti-Christ with speedy death, 
Will sooth the Conclave with his tuneful breath.' 

The imputation, however, of bribery is indignantly repelled 
by Johnson, as what " might be expected from the savage- 
ness of Milton" (Life of Addison); and, with a suspicious 
degree of soreness it is true, denied by Saumaise himself in 
his posthumous Reply, in which he affirms, that c Dr. William 
Morley brought him nothing from the exiled Prince but a 
letter of thanks for his exertions.' Wood too, in his e Athence 
OxonienseSy ii. 770 (most probably, upon this authority) asserts 
the same thing, and pronounces Milton ( an impudent liar ' for 
having reported the contrary. 

* This little pilot-fish (the Gasterosteus Ductor) is most 
frequently found in the Mediterranean, and in the tropical 



milton's second defence. 51 

menaced c impression ' on our shores : and we are 
sharpening our harpoons, to drain from him 
whatever oil or blubber he can be made to yield 
upon the occasion ; not a little delighted, by the 
bye, with the more-than -Pythagorean benevo- 
lence of that great character, who in pity to the 
brute and fish-kind (upon which even Lent 
itself has no compassion) has provided so many 
tomes to wrap them in, and bequeathed to so 
many thousand of poor tunnies and pilchards a 
paper coat a-piece. 

( Ye pilchards, and ye fish who glide 
In winter through our northern tide, 
Rejoice ! Saumaise, a noble knight ! 
Pitying your cold and naked plight, 
Prepares his stores of paper goods, 
Kindly to make you coats and hoods— 
Stamp'd with his name, his arms, his all ; 
That you, his clients, on each stall 

parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Catesby calls it Perca Marina 
Secteria, or the Rudder-fish. The latter name it probably 
obtained among sailors, from being often seen toward the stern 
of ships. Osbec indeed, who describes it as Scomber cceruleo- 
albus cingulis transversis nigris sex, deduces it from it's follow- 
ing the dog-fish, to which it is supposed to point out some 
victim. By Daubenton it is rather referred to it's attending 
the shark, which it precedes (or rather super-cedes) by about a 
foot and a half, closely imitating all it's movements, and dex- 
terously seising the floating remains of it's prey. It has so 
little confidence, however, in it's principal, that when the shark 
turns to catch any fish, it invariably starts away. The Dutch 
assign another motive for it's following vessels, and call it ' The 
Dung-fish/ It may be considered as a parallel to the Wry- 
neck among birds, and the Jackall among quadrupeds. 

E 2 



52 milton's second defence* 

May shine above your brother-fish, 

Array'd in sheets, the pride or wish 

Of fishmongers and dirty thieves, 

Who wipe their noses on their sleeves.* * C. S. 

So much then for the long-expected edition of 
this noble volume ; of which while Saumaise 
(as you inform us) was c projecting an impres- 
sion,' you, More, were polluting his house by a 
villainous compression of his maid. And Sau- 
maise does, indeed, appear to have anxiously 
laid himself out in the completion of this prodi- 
gious work : for, being questioned a few days 
before his death through some one sent on pur- 
pose by a learned man, who himself told me 
the story, c When he intended to give the 
world the second part of his c Remarks on the 

* Cubito mungentium was a cant appellation among the 
Romans for fishmongers, and on that account was sarcastically 
applied to Horace's father. (Suet. c Vit. Horat. 9 ) W. 

This destination of the sheets of Saumaise's new book seems 
a favourite figure with Milton. It recurs in the e Pro Se 
Defensio,' and also in the ' Apology for Smectymnuus/ § 8., 
where he speaks of " folios predestined to no better purpose, 
than to make winding-sheets in Lent for pilchards." This may 
help us to the intended meaning of Scombri, though not accu- 
rately with reference to the Linnean System. See Warton's 
note, p. 483. 

The ( noble volume,' mentioned below, has an obvious 
reference to the Salmasius eques, and the Claudii insignia, &c. 
of the preceding epigram. Saumaise's family, however, was 
really ancient and noble, as appears from his correspondence 
and his biographers. 

The term ' impression/ which follows, is one of the infelici- 
ties of translation. 



milton's second defence. 63 

Pope's Supremacy ? ' he replied, that c he 
should not resume that publication, until he had 
finished the c Answer to Milton,' in which he 
was then engaged.' So that I am to be refuted, 
even before the Pope ! and that primacy,* which 
Saumaise refuses to him in the church, he wil- 
lingly allows to me in his hostility ! Thus have 
I proved the protector of His Holiness' totter- 
ing Supremacy ; and turned aside this modern 
Catiline, not like Tully of old in my robes, nor 
indeed at all dreaming of the matter, but quite 
differently occupied, from the walls of Rome. 
Surely I have a claim upon more than one red 
hat in return, and perhaps may have cause to 
apprehend that the Pope will transfer to me 
the title of our late kings, as f Defender of the 
Faith ! ' You see then, in what an invidious 
situation he has placed me : but be the respon- 
sibility on him, who shamefully deserting his 
honourable post, and intruding himself into 
disputes with which he had no concern, has 
passed over from the cause of the church to that 
of a foreign state (to him totally foreign), en- 
tered into a truce with the Pope, and disgrace- 
fully patched up a peace with the prelacy,! 

* De Primatu Payee, it will be recollected, was one of 
Saumaise's celebrated works. 

t This inconsistency was objected to him, even by his friend 
Sarrau. Miratus sum, et proculdubib mecum erunt multi in 
eddem sententia, ubi legi in Prcefatione * Necessarios tibi videri 
Episcopos in regimine ecclesice Anglicance : ' tibi, inquam, qui 



54 

with which he had previously waged a most 
determined warfare. 



in Wallone Messalino adeb acriter eos insectatus es, utforsan 
inde arrepta sit, si non nata occasio eos penitus amovendi. (See 
Clement's Life of Saumaise, p. xlix.; who, however, attempts 
to repel the charge of inconsistency here alleged against his 
hero.) Hoe sane dicent esse ra kxi^co £*tevuv potius, quam tjj 
tcX&uu n&teSett. — — Dicetur, as he adds in a subsequent letter, 
calidum te etfrigidum eodem ex ore efflare. This honest adviser 
had previously pointed out to him the delicacy of the undertak- 
ing, as coupled with his obligations to the Republic of the 
United States : Pericidosce plenum opus alece aggrederis, De- 
fensionem dico nuper occisi Britanniarum Regis ; maxime cum 
Vestri ordines mediam via?n secent. Laudo tamen animi tui 
generosum proposition, quo nefandum scelus aperte damnare 
sustines. Hac tamen te cautione uti opus est, ne ita Majestatem 
Regidm extollas, id erga subditos amorem videantur Mi gratis 
largiri, Debent enim illi suis populis prcesertbn prodesse, quo- 
rum causa constituti sunt.-r-A large concession for a Parisian 
Senator in the midst of the seventeenth century ! — Satis sciunt 
hoc nostro cevo Reges, quce et quanta sit sua potestas ; omnibus 
qui illos accedunt aulicis certatim eorum auribus insusurrantibus, 
eos uno Deo minores posse quodcunque libuerit, nee idli mortalium 
debere administrations sues redder e rationem. Sed istius potes- 
tatis verum, legitimum, et moderatum usum pauci eos docent, 
duabus de causis : Prior est } quia Reges non amant cogi in ordi- 
nem, nee volunt ullas quamvis liberas pati habenas ; altera est, 
quia eorum qui iUos accedunt unum studium est illis placere et 
assentariy unde jit ut in immensum eos extoliere tantum laborent. 
Hos si effugeris scopulos, ad quos plurimi impegerunt, magnum 
feceris operce pretium. * * 

But it was not the character of Saumaise to be guided — 
except by his wife: and he is, in consequence, frequently 
reproached by his respectable correspondent for his fatal un- 
tractableness. De tuo pro infelice Rege Apologetico solens 
fads, qui fads quod libet, et amicorum consilia spernis. Quod 



milton's second defence. 55 

"Let us now come to the charge, which he 
brings against me. Is there any thing in my 

tamen tibi proposueram, omni culpa et periculo vacabat. Con* 
suluisses, si Mud sequutusjidsses, et famce Regies et propria 
securitati. Videris velle irritare crabrones, et tuis inimicis occa- 
siones prcebere in te non sine occasione insaniendi, &c. &c. 
The offended critic remonstrated with acrimony upon such 
plainness of speech ; and Sarrau was obliged to soften his obser- 
vations. Scilicet non placet tibi libertas, quti soleo tecum de 
rebus scriptisve tuis agere. Monitus cautius agam imposterum — 
nihil est, propter quod ' durus, dirus, et non amplius amicus' 
credar. 

From the same series of Letters (Gudii et Sarravii Epistotce) 
we learn, that in the distribution of presentation-copies of the 
' Defensio Regia/ the Dowager Queen complained of having 
been neglected by Saumaise ( f Quamvis eiiim, inquiebat, ' sit 
in re minime lauta, tamen potuisse solvere pretium tabellarii, 
qui illud attidisset ') / and also, by implication at least, that his 
sickness at Stockholm in 1650 was generally referred to the 
issue of his Miltonian conflict: Mitius et cautius Jbrsan aget 
deinceps cum suis adversariis. Ejus vehementior impetus bonis 
€t gravibus dudiim improbatus est : sed non solet facilem se 
prcebere amicorum monitis ; uti nee alii plurimi prcestantissimi 
viri, qui se suaque amant, et privatis affectibus indulgent. 

In Burman's Preface to the Collection, the character of this 
Coryphaeus of literature is strongly sketched : Erat Salmasio 
ingeniwm sublime ae pene divinum^ doctrina immensa, et memo* 
ria, qua cuncta ab omni cevo scripta complectebatur, ultra huma- 
nam sortem tenacissima ; sed cum paucos sibi pares duceret, ne* 
minem verb superior em ferret, contumeliose ac acerbe de omni' 
bus ejus cevi viris sentiret et loqueretur, et similis Pan Theocri* 
teoj cut 

Alt fyi[//US& froXol 7TQTI pV* KCt3-*)TCtt t 

omnium Jamam laceraret, cum omnibus fire contentiones et lites 
sxercebat. Hence his terrors, as he was of a suspicious and 



56 milton's second defence. 

life or morals, upon which his censure can 
fasten ? Certainly not. What, then, is his con- 
duct ? That, of which no one but a barbarian 
could have been guilty : he reproaches me 
with my form, and my blindness. In his page, 
I am 

" Monstrum horrendum, hiforme, ingens, cui lumen ademptum" 
A monster — horrid, hideous, huge, and blind.* 

I certainly never imagined that, with respect 
to person, there would be instituted any compe- 
tition between me and a Cyclops. But he im- 
mediately corrects himself: So far however is he 
from being c huge,' that a more puny, bloodless, 
shrivelled animal was never seen. Although it 
be idle for a man to speak of his own form, yet 
since even in this particular instance I have 
cause of thankfulness to God, and the power of 

credulous nature, of personal retribution ; particularly of being 
cudgelled, or even smothered in a ditch, by his adversary Daniel 
Heinsius. Grotius was another distinguished object of his 
safe hostility — after his death, it seems ; as the widow of that 
great man threatened to publish twenty four of his letters 
addressed to her deceased husband, < ut videat orbis quantum 
ei vivo detulerit, qui jam defunctum crudelissime lacerat. At 
e puxupiTw conjux meus eum semper coluit ; quinetiam scepis- 
sime in libris suis honorifice compellavit, &c. 

The English reader, it is hoped, will forgive this long note ; 

and not exclaim, if acquainted with French (what is observed by 

Vorstius' Translator upon his hero's trop d'impetuosite) les per- 

sonnages moderes n'approuvent pas ce trop. 

* Virg. Mn. iii. 658., where the line is applied to Poly* 

phemus. 



milto'n's second defence. SI 

confuting the falsehoods of my adversaries, I 
will not be silent on the subject ; lest any person 
should deem me, as the credulous populace of 
Spain are induced by their priests to believe 
those whom they call heretics, to be a kind of 
rhinoceros, or a monster with a dog's head. 
By any one indeed, who has seen me, I have 
never to the best of my knowledge been consi- 
dered as deformed : whether as handsome, or 
not, is less an object of my concern.* My sta- 

* And yet, if we might trust the representations of his adver- 
sary, in his posthumous Reply, this was to his feeling" no indiffer- 
ent matter. Next to the barbarous sneers upon Milton's blind- 
ness, which abound in almost every page (such as, Bellua quce 
nihil hominis sibi reliqui fecit, prceter lippientes oculos ; — Malo 
isto magnam partem tuce pulcritudinis deperiisse, pro eo ac 
debeo doleo ; — talpd ccecior, &c.) stand those ironical observations 
on his size and beauty — Staturd pumilionem, malitid gigan- 
tem ;—formosus pasio ;—formce decore, quam semper plurimum 
venditdsti, fyc. particularly as estimated by his Italian friends: 
Quid Itali nunc dicerent, si te viderent cum istdjwdd lippi- 
tudine ? — quern olim pro Jcemind habuerunt ; — culcita ; — mol- 
iicellus et bellulus catamitus, &c. In the next paragraph, 
upon his stature, Milton perhaps remembered Aristotle's cl 
fjjMyot d'as-uoi m/a (rt/^t/^sTpoj, Kcttot £■' a. HS-. iv. 7« In this 
discreditable contest of scurrility, in which it must be owned 
the invectives of both parties are equally reprehensible for 
their coarseness, it could hardly be expected that Manso's 
punning distich (comparing Milton in c form, face, mien, 
mind, and manners' to an angel), or Milton's own tetras- 
tic on the <Pocv\is JW/t^/z/jj/aec £aypx<px — the comptula imago, 
as Saumaise calls it — prefixed to an edition of his Poems, 
should escape notice. Accordingly the Itali poetastri, and 
the "retorted name of Salmacis upon one, qui quod est Jemi- 
narum sibi arrogat, et de solo Jbrmce bono gloriatur ; qui 



58 milton's second defence. 

ture, I own, is not tall, but it approaches nearer 
to the middle size, than to the low. Were it 
however even low, I should in this respect only 
resemble many, who have eminently distin- 
guished themselves both in peace and in war.* 
Why indeed should that be called low, which is 
sufficiently lofty for all the purposes of human 
exertion ? Neither am I to be pronounced very 
c puny ; ' having so much spirit and strength, 
that when my age and the habits of my life 
permitted, I daily accustomed myself to the 
exercise of the sword t in fencing ; and ac- 

etiam sculptori suo versibus editis in mdgus maledixit, quod se 
minus Jbrmosum quam revera se esse putaret pinxerit, are intro- 
duced in the e Responsio ' of Saumaise. In the University, 
Johnson tells us, he was called " The Lady of his College." 
See a fine portrait of him by the pen of Dr. Symmons, p. 
573, &c. 

* " Alexander the Great, there is reason to believe, was 
scarcely larger than Buonaparte. Attila was very little ; and 
this was the more remarkable, since his followers were in gene- 
ral a tall and athletic race, and people were only esteemed 

according to their bodily powers/' " Julius Caesar, Mark 

Antony, Henry IV. of France, Louis XIV., Marechal Tu- 
renne, with many more who might be named, are all recorded 
as being below what is esteemed the middle stature for a man ; 
and the same has been the case with almost all the French 
Generals, who have been celebrated since the commencement 
of the Revolution." (Plumptre's * Residence in France/ I. 112.) 

f This Dr. Johnson supposes, was " not the rapier, but the 
back-sword, of which he recommends the use in his book on 
Education :" but, as it was e the weapon with which he was 
generally armed,' Dr. Symmons much more probably thinks it 
was the small sword. (Life, p. 574«.) 



milton's second defence. 5 9 

counted myself, armed with that weapon (as I 
generally was) secure in the assault of any man, 
hand to hand, how superior soever he might be 
in muscular power. The spirit and the strength 
remain, still unimpaired; my eyes alone have 
failed: and yet they are as unblemished in 
appearance, as lucid and as free from spot, as 
those which possess the sharpest vision.* In 
this instance alone am I, most reluctantly, a 
deceiver. My c bloodless ' form, as he calls it, 



•Clear, 



To outward view, of blemish or of spot. (Sonn. xxii.) 

This is the characteristic of the Amaurosis, or Gutta Serena, 
which Milton pathetically deplores, P. L.iii. 25, &c. 

* So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs. 
Or dim suffusion veil'd ' &c. 

where he subjoins, as here, in self-consolation, 

* Blind Tamyris, and blind Masonides, 

And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old,' &c. 

Of which last line it may be observed, that the passage below, 
introducing Tiresias along with other celebrated * bards of re- 
mote antiquity/ proves the authenticity (notwithstanding Dr, 
Bentley's objection) still better, perhaps, than the Dircceus augur 
Pe Id. Plat. 26. referred to by Warton, in his note on Eleg, 
vi. 67. It would sound more harmoniously however, to a 
modern ear, if the two names were to change places. 

Upon the Gutta Serena occur some very interesting remarks, 
in Ware's late republication of his f Observations on the Eye.' 
** To call Thevenot the c Ware of the seventeenth century and of 
France,' would be to pay the former a high compliment (C. S. 
Life, 375.) ; for, of twelve cases, recorded in his third volume, 
four were cured by electricity, four chiefly by a mercurial snuff, 
and four relieved by other remedies ! 



60 milton's second defencEc 

retains at the age of more than forty a colour 
the very reverse of bloodless and pale, induc- 
ing almost every one to consider me as ten 
years younger than I really am : neither is my 
skin c shrivelled,' nor my body in any way con- 
tracted. If in any of these circumstances I 
speak not the truth, I should justly incur the 
ridicule of thousands of my own countrymen, 
as well as a number of foreigners, who are 
acquainted with my person. It may fairly then 
be concluded, what little credit in other 
respects is due to one, who has thus unnecessa- 
rily in this particular been guilty of a gross and 
wanton falsehood. So much have I been com- 
pelled to state about my own person : of yours, 
though I have been informed that it is the most 
contemptible, and the most strongly expressive 
of the dishonesty and malevolence by which it is 
actuated, I am as little disposed to speak as 
others would be to hear. 

Would it were in my power with the same 
facility to refute the charge, which my unfeel- 
ing adversary brings against me, of blindness ! 
Alas ! it is not, and I must therefore submit to 
it. It is not, however, miserable to be blind. 
He only is miserable, who cannot bear his 
Blindness with fortitude : and why should I not 
bear a calamity, which every man's mind should 
be disciplined, on the contingency of it's hap- 
pening, to bear with patience ; a calamity, to 
the contingency of which every man, by the 



milton's second defence. 61 

condition of his nature, is exposed ; and which 
I know to have been the lot of some of the 
greatest and the best of my species ? Among 
those I might reckon many of the wisest of the 
bards of remote antiquity, whose loss of sight 
the Gods are said to have compensated with far 
more valuable endowments ; and whose virtues 
mankind held in such veneration, as rather to 
choose to arraign heaven itself of injustice, 
than to deem their blindness as proof of their 
having deserved it. What is handed down to 
us respecting the augur Tiresias, is generally 
known. Of Phineus, Apollonius in his Argo- 
nautics thus sung : 

V^ 9 OCTCOV 07Ti£lTO XOU AfOg CtVTiS 

Xpstwv urpixsuc, Upov voov a,v^pu7ro:(n' 

To) KXi Ot yj$p#S [A£V t7Ti ^i}VX(eV IxXXtV^ 

Ex J* iter* c<p$aXiAav yhvKipov tfoioq.'* 

Careless of Jove, in conscious virtue bold, 

His daring lips heaven's sacred mind unfold. 

The God hence gave him years without decay, 

But robb'd his eye-balls of the pleasing day. C. S. 

Now God himself is truth: the more con- 
scientiously, then, any one " unfolds the sacred 
mind of heaven," the Jiker and the more accept- 
able must he be to God. To suppose the Deity 
averse from the communication of truth to his 
creatures, or to suppose him unwilling that it 
should be communicated in the most extensive 

• II. 181. 



62 MILTON *S SECOND DEFENCE. 

degree, is perfectly impious. It implied there- 
fore no guilt in this excellent character, who 
anxiously sought like many other philosophers 
to impart instruction to mankind, to havQ lost 
his sight. I might farther mention other names,* 

* Of this illustrious list, Timoleon (says Plutarch, in his 
Life) y&i 7rtwrQvTipo$ m UTmpZ'AwSvi tjjv e^, tirec nteu$ mypa&i) 

[Aitf ofayOV. Hrt &VTO$ iCCVTtf TTpoCPctCrtV 7rxpCt,(T%UV 7 UTi 5T#pOt!>S}9-«<5 V7T0 

tyjc, ruffle, U.XX& «rfyy£f<x»5 nvo$ (&>$ soix.ii>} patiols xcci ku.to'Jqo\y& kfi/ec 
T»xpovu o-wttiB spurn. Appius Claudius, qui propter invalitu- 
dinem oculorum jamdiu consiliis publicis se abstinuerat, venit in 
curiam, et sententid sua tenuit, ut id Pyrrho negaretur — sc. in 
urbem recipi (Liv. Suppl. Epit. xiii.) Metellus is, also, men* 
tioned ib. xix. 

To these ancient instances might have been added from 
Cicero, Tusc. Disp. v. 38., where the privations of blindness 
are discussed, the names of Antipater of Cyrene, and C. Drusus. 

Of the modern part of the catalogue, Zisca (so called from 
the loss of an eye) was chosen leader to the Hussites, and in the 
prosecution of their quarrel with the emperor Sigismimd lost the 
other at Rabi. He died A. D. 14)04 ; and his skin, such was 
the terror of his name, was converted into a drum. Zanchius, 
or Zanchy, a voluminous writer of great piety and learning 
among the Reformers, died at Heidelberg (where he had been 
appointed Professor of Divinity) A. D. 1590. But I may be 
told, by some modern Johnson, that " I am chasing a school- 
boy to his common-places." 

I will add however to the number, upon their own respective 
authorities, Ossian and Dr. Lucas, author of the excellent 
Essay on c Happiness/ The former, in the midst of his sublime 
apostrophe to the Sun (at the end of his « Carthon ') says ; 
ts But to Ossian thou lookest in vain, for he beholds thy beams 
no more; whether thy yellow hair flows on the eastern clouds, 
or thou tremblest at the gates of the west." See P. L. iii. 41. 
" But not to me returns " &c. quoted in a following note. 
And the latter : " Should I struggle to rescue myself from that 



63 

illustrious for their civil wisdom and heroic 
exploits ; Timoleon of Corinth, the rescuer of 
Ms own state and of all Sicily from oppression, 
one of the best, and — in every thing relative to 
the republic — the purest of men : Appius Clau- 
dius, whose patriotic speech in the senate, 
though it could not restore his own sight, 
relieved Italy from her great enemy, Pyrrhus ; 
Caecilius Metellus the High Priest, who lost his 
eyes in preserving not only Rome, but the 
Palladium also to which her fate was attached 



contempt, to which this condition (wherein I may seem lost 
to the world, and myself) exposes me ; should I ambitiously 
affect to have my name march in the train of those all (though 
not all equally) great ones — Homer, Appius, Cn. Aufidius, 
Didymus, Walkup, P. Jean l'Aveugle, &c. all of them eminent 
for their service and usefulness, as for their affliction of the 
same kind as mine ; even this might seem almost a commenda- 
ble infirmity," &c. (Pre£) He afterward, in the very spirit of 
Milton, affirms; " The soul can gaze on those charms and 
glories, winch are not subject to the bodily eye, the vultus. 
nimium lubricos aspici $ " pronounces her " happy in her own,- 
strength and wealth, ipsa suis pollens opihus ; " and represents 
her as " going out, like Dinah, to see the daughters of the 
land." (Gen. xxxiv. 1.) 

To the above list may, also, be subjoined the celebrated Irish 
bard Carolan, whose elegant little Composition on the influ- 
ence of beauty is preserved in Miss Brookes' ' Reliques of 
English Poetry.' It concludes thus : 

— f E'en he, whose hapless eyes no ray 
Admit from Beauty's cheering day, 
Yet though he cannot see the light, 
He feels it warm and knows it bright/ 



.64 milton's second defence. 

and her most sacred vessels from the flames; 
since the Deity has upon so many occasions 
evinced his regard for bright examples even t>f 
heathen piety, that what happened to such a 
man so employed can hardly be accounted an 
evil. Why need I adduce the modern instances 
of Dandolo, the celebrated Doge of V T enice or 
the brave Bohemian General Zisca, the great 
defender of Christianity, of Jerome Zanchius, 
and other eminent divines; when it appears 
that even the patriarch Isaac,* than whom 
no one was ever more beloved by his Maker, 
lived for some years blind, as did also his son 
Jacob,! an equal favourite with heaven; and 
when our Saviour himself explicitly affirmed, 
with regard to the man whom he healed, t that 
neither on account of his own sin, nor that of 
his parents, had he been Cf blind from his birth ?." 
In respect to myself — I call thee, O God, to 
witness, who " triest the very heart and the 
reins," that after a frequent and most serious ex- 
amination and scrutiny of every corner of my 
life, I am not conscious of any recent or remote 
crime, which by it's atrocity can have drawn 
down this calamity exclusively upon my head. 
As to what I have at any time written (for, in re- 
ference to this, the royalists triumphantly deem 
my blindness a sort of judgement) I declare, 
with the same solemn appeal to the Almighty, 

* Gen, xxvii. 1. + Gen. xlviii. 10. X Jolmix, 3. 



65 

that I never wrote any thing of the kind alluded 
to, which I did not at the time, and do not now, 
firmly believe to have been right and true and 
acceptable to God : and that, impelled not by 
ambition, or the thirst of gain or of glory, but 
simply by duty and honour and patriotism ;* 
nor with a view singly to the emancipation of 
the State, but still more particularly to that of 
the Church. So that when the office of replying 
to c The Royal Defence ' was publicly assigned 
to me, though I had to struggle with ill health, 
and having already lost nearly one of my eyes 
was expressly fore-warned by my physicians that, 
if I undertook the laborious work in question, 
I should soon be deprived of both ; undeterred 
by the warning, I seemed to hear the voice — 
not of a physician, or from the shrine of ^Escu- 
lapius at Epidaurus,t but of an internal and 
more divine monitor : and conceiving that by 
some decree of the fates the alternative of two 
lots was proposed to me, either to lose my 

* The honesty of this avowal is strongly attested by the 
story, which the elder Richardson relates (and Johnson, for the 
pleasure of rejecting it, repeats) of his having refused the offer 
of his old department, of Latin Secretary, from Charles II. 
after the Restoration. 

Why Milton, in 1673, should be unwilling to own his con- 
nexion in 1634 with the Bridgewater family, conspicuous as 
it was for it's unshaken loyalty, and at that time in high 
fevour at court, Warton ought to have explained (ib. 117. not. §). 

t Epidaurus was a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, where 
the heathen God of Medicine was chiefly worshipped. 

E 



06 milton's second defence. 

sight or to desert a high duty, I remembered 
the twin destinies, which the son of Thetis 
informs us his mother brought back to him from 
the oracle of Delphi : 

A<^9-«JWs Y~r,px$ tpzpf/Aiv B-etvccloio TiXo^f 
E» (&£» ic r ccvB-l fjtjivuv Tpaav ttoXiv ccp^ipcc^uihai^ 

Ei h xiv 6ncct£ r UoifAi <piXi)t s$ x-ccrpi^x ycttxvy 
£LXiTo f&oi xXios t(r^^ov t itti eypov oi pot caav 
E|r«rsT«t.* 

f As the Goddess spake, who gave me birth, 
Two fates attend me whilst I live on earth. 
If fix' gL I combat by the Trojan wall, 
Deathless my fame, but certain is my fall : 
If I return, beneath my native sky 
My days shall nourish long, my glory die/ C. S, 

Reflecting therefore with myself that many 
had purchased less good with greater evil, and 
had even paid life as the price of glory, while 
to me the greater good was offered at the 
expense of the less evil, and an opportunity 
furnished, simply by incurring blindness, of 
satisfying the demand of the most honourable 
duty — a result more substantial, and therefore 
what ought to be by every one considered as 
more satisfactory and more eligible, than glory 
itself — I determined to dedicate the brief en- 
joyment of my eye-sight,t so long as it might 

* Horn. II. ix. 411, &c. 

f If poets, like painters, were not a privileged class — to the* 
extent of quidlibet audendi — this passage would justify some 
rigorous criticism upon the beautiful stanza relative to Milton t 



milton's second defence. 67 

be spared me, with as much effect as I could 
to the public service. You see then what I 

in Gray's ' Ode on the Progress of Poesy,' as to the cause of 
his loss of sight. Some, indeed, it has already incurred : See 
a note on the passage, in Mason's Edition, 12mo. I. pp. 114 — 
117- Count Algarotti might truly say, Non puo essere piu 
poetica la ragione, ch'egli (sc. Gray) fabrica delta cecita del 
MUtono; il quale, ' oltrepassati ijiammante confine dello spazio 
e del tempo, ebbe ardire dijissare lo sguardo cola dove gli A?igioli 
stessi paventano di rimirare, e gli occhi suoi qffuocati in quel 
pelago di luce si chiusero tosto in una notte sempiterna : ' for 
poetry delights in fiction. But it is generally known, that 
he suffered the loss of his eyes in a less brilliant, though in 
his own apprehension most dignified, pursuit. He himself 
informs us, 



He lost them, overplied 



In liberty's defence, his noble task, 

Of which all Europe talks from side to side. (Sonn. xxii.) 

And this early i» 1652, as Dr. S. accurately concludes, most 
probably soon after the publication of his^answer to Saumaise 
(p. 400). That Johnson, in his Life of Milton, should not 
have noticed this prominent fact, is extraordinary ; and, with his 
peculiar hostility, almost proves that he envied him the glory of 
so painful a surrender to public duty. In his biography of 
Gray, written also with a most unfriendly hand, he states it 
as ' { a supposition surely allowable, that Milton's blindness was 
caused by study in the formation of his poem ! " and even 
permits himself to pay the lyrist a compliment on the stanza 
above alluded to, as ' c poetically true, and happily imagined ! " 
But it was " to the employment of writing elaborate though 
perishable dissertations, Warton informs us (Pref. to Min. 
Poem. p. xiii.) in defence of innovation and anarchy, that he 
sacrificed his eyes, his health, his repose, his native propensities, 
his elegant studies. Smit with the deplorable polemics of puri- 
tanism, he suddenly ceased to gaze on such sights as youthful 

F 2 



68 milton's second defence. 

preferred, what I sacrificed, and what were my 
motives. Let these slanderers of the divine 
judgements, therefore, desist from their calum- 
nies, nor any longer make me the subject of their 
visionary fantasies : let them learn, in fine, that 
I neither regret my lot, nor repent my choice ; 
that my opinions continue inflexibly the same, 
and that I neither feel nor fear for them the 
anger of God, but on the contrary experience 
and acknowledge in the most momentous events 
of my life his mercy and paternal kindness — in 
nothing more particularly, however, than in his 
having soothed and strengthened me into an 
acquiescence in his divine will ; led me to 
reflect rather upon what he has bestowed, than 
what he has withheld ; and determined me to 
prefer the consciousness of my own achievements 
to the best deeds of my adversaries, and con- 

poets dream : M not, however, as he subjoins, " without some- 
times heaving a sigh for the peaceable enjoyments of lettered 
solitude, for his congenial pursuits, and the more mild and 
ingenuous exercises of the Muse" (xiv.) ; though he, still, 
obstinately persisted in what he thought his duty, (xv.) Well 
might the annotator, under this latter conviction, transcribe 
with abhorrence (p. S5S) his quotation from the * Decretum 
Oxoniense* (Mus. Anglic, ii. 180. Ed. 1714) consigning 
Milton, as 

ccelo terrisque ihamabile nomen, 



to the flames, in which part of his writings were consumed, 
July 21, 1683 ! Why does he not always treat his author with 
the tenderness, which such a conviction should have inspired? 



milton's second defence. 69 

stantly to cherish the cheering and silent 
remembrance of them in my breast : finally, in 
respect of blindness, to think my own (if it must 
be borne) more tolerable than either theirs, 
More, or yours. Yours, affecting the inmost 
optics of the mind, prevents the perception of 
any thing sound or solid : mine, which you so 
much abuse, only * deprives me of the hue and 

* And yet how beautifully does he deplore this privation, in 
the sequel of the passage above-quoted ! 

f Thus, with the year, 

Seasons return ; but not to me returns 
Day, or the sweet approach of eve or morn, 
Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose, 
Or flocks or herds or human face divine ; 
But cloud instead and ever-during dark 
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men 
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair 
Presented with a universal blank 
Of nature's works — tome expunged and rased, 
And wisdom at one entranee quite shut out ! ' 

He then pursues a train of thought, similar to what follows 
in the text : 

f So much the rather thou, Celestial Light, 
Shine inward/ &c. (P. L. iii. 40, &c.) 

In the former part, he almost seems to address himself in the 
Sophoclean line, 

His necessities toward the close of his life, it is to be feared, 
gave him an opportunity of proving the inefficacy of the ChaU 
dean e|"^p>«*s <px^ecKov t barley-bread. (Lucian. M«kp«£.) 



70 MILTON 5 S SECOND DEFENCE. 

surface of things, and leaves to my intellectual 
view whatever they contain of substance and 
real value. How many things, in fact, are there, 
which I should not wish to see ; * how many, 
that I should wish to see in vain ; and how few, 
consequently, would remain for my actual 
enjoyment ! Wretched therefore as you may 
think it, I feel it no source of anguish to be 
associated with the blind, the afflicted, the 
infirm, and the mourners; since I may thus hope, 
that I am more immediately under the favour 
and protection of my dread Father. The way 
to the greatest strength, an Apostle has assured 
us, lies through weakness :t let me then be of all 
men the weakest, provided that immortal and 
better vigour exert itself with an efficacy 
proportioned to my infirmity, provided the 
light of God's countenance shine with intense 
brilliance upon my darkness. Then shall I at 
once be most feeble and most mighty, com- 
pletely blind and thoroughly sharp-sighted. 
O may this weakness insure my consummation, 
my perfection ; and my illumination arise out 
of this obscurity ! In truth, we blind men are 
not the lowest objects of the care of Provi- 
dence, who deigns to look upon us with the 

* Some lines of his friend Ell wood are preserved., in which he 
prays; 

c O that mine eyes might closed be. 
To what becomes me not to see ! * 

f 2 Cor. xii. 9. 



milton's second defence. 71 

greater affection and benignity, as we are inca- 
pable of looking upon any thing but himself. 
Woe to those that mock or hurt us, protected 
as we are, and almost consecrated from human 
injuries, by the ordinances and favour of the 
Deity ; and involved in darkness, not so much 
from the imperfection of our optic powers, as 
from the shadow of the Creator's wings — a 
darkness, which he frequently irradiates with 
an inner and far superior light ! To this I refer 
the increased kindness, attentions, and visits 
of my friends ; * and that there are some, with 
whom I can exchange those accents of real 
friendship : 

Orest. c Lead on, my foot's sure helm ! ' 

Pyl. ' To me dear trust V 

And again : — — A Jj* ^s<p" C^ try <piXa> j 

* Reach out your hand to friendship's fond fast grasp/ 

And, Aihfyye-w yjaf % o$yyn<ra b'iyv.% 

{ Cling close to me, and I will be your guide.' 

Thus was I not regarded as annihilated by 

* He does not here include his daughters, who (as Dr. Sym- 
mons, on the authority of Christopher Milton's Respons. ad 
Interrogatoricty Warton's Append, to Pref. p. xxxiii., assures 
us) " with peculiar inhumanity neglected him in his blindness, 
and were capable even of defrauding and robbing him ! ! " But, 
though his reading would forcibly suggest to him a painful 
contrast in CEdipus' Antigone, he t( complained of them with- 
out passion, and never treated them with harshness." (P. 582.) 

f Eurip. Orest. 785. Ed. Pors. ~ % Id. Here. Fur. 



72 milton's second defence. 

this calamity, or considered as having all my 
worth and excellence confined to my eyes. 
Nay, our principal public characters, knowing 
that my sight had forsaken me, not in a state 
of torpid inactivity, but while I was strenuously 
encountering every peril among the foremost in 
behalf of liberty, do not themselves forsake me: 
on the contrary, from a view of the uncertainty 
of all human things, they are kind to me on 
account of my past services, and obligingly 
indulge me with an exemption from farther 
labours; not stripping me of my honours, not 
taking away my appointment, not curtailing it's 
emoluments ; but humanely continuing them 
to me, in my state of reduced utility, with 
precisely the same compliment as the Athenians 
formerly paid to those, to whom they assigned 
a subsistence in the Prytaneum.* Thus con- 
soled for my calamity both by God and man, I 
entreat that no one would lament my loss of 
sight, incurred in a cause so honourable. Far 
too be it from me to lament it myself, or to 
want the spirit readily to despise those who 
revile me for it, or rather the indulgence still 
more readily to forgive them. 

But I now turn to you, whoever you are, that 
with so much inconsistency represent me at one 

* This SiT)jo-*5 s» TIfVTeiviiu was an entertainment allowed, in 
the common hall called Prytaneum, to such as '. had deserved 
well of the commonwealth;' qui honos, says Cic. de Orat.i. 
54, apud Grcecos maximus habetur. 



milton's second defence. 73 

time as a dwarf, at another as a giant ; and 
wish, as you say in conclusion, no higher advan- 
tage to the United Provinces of Belgium, than 
that they may with as much ease and success 
despatch the war in which they are at present 
engaged, as Saumaise will despatch Milton. To 
this wish I most readily yield my assent, and 
think it neither a bad omen, nor a bad prayer 
for England's welfare. 

But hark ! another < cry,' foreign and stridu- 
lus i It must be a flight of geese from some 
side or other. O now I see, what it is. This, 
I remember, is the tragedy of Cry. " Enter 
Chorus, consisting of two Verse-mongers;'* 
two, or one of double form and hue ! Shall I call 
it a sphinx, or the poetical monster of Horace, 
with a woman's head, an ass' neck, and a 
motley collection of limbs and plumage from all 
quarters? The very thing. Some itinerant 
ballad-singer, hung round with rags and 
patches ; but whether single or a pair is doubt- 
ful, for this thing too is anonymous. Poets, 
properly so called, have my love and reverence, 
and their compositions are my constant delight : 
Most of them indeed, I know, from the very 
earliest down to our own Buchanan, are deci- 
dedly hostile to tyrants. But mere hucksters 
in rhyme who does not justly abhor, as a tribe 
of fools and coxcombs and knaves and liars! 
They deal out praise and censure without 
selection, discrimination, judgement, or limit j 



74 milton's second defence. 

to princes and peasants, learned and unlearned, 
good and bad exactly alike : ' rapt and inspired' 
by a pot of beer, the chink of a few guineas, or 
a stupid phrensy of composition — with such an 
incongruous and putid combination of words 
and things, that the subjects of their panegyric 
would far better be passed over in silence and 
obscurity ; and those, whom they abuse, deem 
it no inconsiderable honour, to be out of favour 
with such a dull and heavy set of blockheads. 

The first of these in question, if there be 
indeed a pair, I don't know whether to call a 
poet or a plasterer ; he so bedaubs Saumaise, 
nay, whitens and stuccoes him over exactly like 
a wall. He introduces him in a triumphal car, 
a perfect Jack the Giant-Killer, with his darts 
and mufflers and other gossamery arms, and a 
whole host of scholars in his train — but at an 
aweful distance, to be sure, from the great 
man, 

by Providence ordain d 

To snatch from ruin's gripe a trembling tvorld ; 
Father qflavo and empire, and of kings 
The long-sought shield ! * 

Saumaise must have been an absolute madman 
and dotard, to have found so much gratification 
in these praises, and so anxiously to have 
forwarded their publication : and mean and 
inattentive to decorum must that poet be, who 

* I have given a metrical version to these Alcaic disjecti 
membra poetastri 9 to mark the character of the passage quoted. 



milton's second defence. 75 

could lavish such immoderate panegyric upon a 
mere grammarian,* one of a description of 
men always considered as ministerial and sub- 
ordinate to his own. 

The second does not rhyme, but actually 
rave, and that more furiously than the veriest 
ranter among the enthusiasts, against whom he 
so madly inveighs; calls for the beadle and 
hangman, though himself a low-born upstart, 
-as if he were Saumaise's Jack Ketch ;t and 



* The term grammaticus, which occurs in the * Pro Populo 
Afiglicano Defensio, 9 and is repeated more than once in the 
subsequent pages of this composition, pressed sorely on the in- 
solent Saumaise, if we may judge from the pains with which 
he repelled it's application, in the pages of his posthumous 
Reply : Cerit meritb negat, &c. 

T Milton, in passages of this description, has been accused of 
excessive — not to say, scurrilous severity, and perhaps it is not 
quite a satisfactory defence to allege, that it was only par pari. 
But even Milton could not read with calm and philosophical in- 
difference the doubt expressed about him by his foul-mouthed 
adversary — homone, an vermis heri e sterquilinio editus ; the 
ignobile tutim ; the Tartareus Jurcifer, teterrimus carnifex, 
&c. &c. ; imputations, which those who alleged them knew 
presumptively at the time to be untrue. Isaac Vossius, who 
was nephew to Junius of Anglo-Saxon memory, and honoured 
a stall in the Cathedral which Du Moulin disgraced, could 
have told them (as he told Heinsius, on his uncle's authority, 
vin a Letter dated 1651) that Milton was wow quidem nobili, sed 
iamen generosd at ipsi loquuntur ortus stirpe — comis, affabilis, 
muliisque aliis prceditus virtutibus. I cannot prevail upon 
myself to withhold the observations of the same writer upon 
the event, which gave Saumaise a momentary glow of tri- 



76 milton's second defence. 

then reeling with hellebore vomits a whole ca- 
taract of scurrility, derived from the mouths of 
slaves and pimps (out of the Index to Plautus) 
in wretched dog-latin, and with a tone like the 
croaking of one of the frogs of his own Stygian 
pool. As a proof of his skill in Iambics, take 
a single word with two errors in it, one syllable 
being lengthened and one shortened impro- 
perly : 

Hi trucidato rege per horrendum nejas ! 
€ They their liege sovereign, dreadful crime ! slaughter'd/ 

Away, ass, with your panniers of vac'wities ; 
and give us, if you can, three words of sound 
and sober composition — if, indeed, that pump- 
kin and dolt-head of yours has ever a lucid 
interval of a single moment : till then I resign 
you, as another Orbilius, to be well thrashed at 
your own boys' whipping-harvest. Do you, in 

umph amidst all his mortifications, the burning of his anta- 
gonist's book by the public executioner at Paris. " Hoc scio 
Jatum esse bonorum fere librorum, ut hoc modo vel pereant \>el 
periclitentur. Homines, plerumque, propter scelera et pravita- 
ievt manus carnificum subeunt ; libri verb, virtutis et prcestanticz 
ergo. Soli fatuorum labores tales non metuunt casus. Sed sane 
Jrustra sunt, qui se hoc modo extirpare posse existimant Miltoni 
et aliorum scripta, cum potius Jlammis istis mirum quantum 
clarescant et illustrentur. (Burm. Syll. iii. 621.) 

Scilicet illo igne &c. remarks Tacitus with virtuous indigna- 
tion, in the Introduction to his Life of Agricola, of the times 
of Domitian. 



milton's second defence. 77 

the mean while, still continue your invectives 
against me ! Still affirm, that I am worse even 
than Cromxvell ; the greatest compliment, in 
fact, which you can pay me ! Shall I in return 
pronounce you a friend, a fool, or an insidious 
foe ? c A friend' you certainly are not, for your 
language indicates hostility. Why, then, are you 
such 6 a fool' in your censures, as to think of 
setting me above so illustrious a personage as 
Cromwell ? Don't you know, or do you think I 
don't know, that the more virulently you ex- 
press your hatred to me, the higher in reality 
you raise my merits toward the commonwealth 
of England ; and that every sarcasm you utter 
against me, is a recommendation of me to my 
own party ? Your hating me above all others 
only proves that I, above all others, have tor- 
tured and annoyed and harassed you, and there- 
fore deserved proportionately well of my fellow- 
citizens : for the evidence and judgement of an 
adversary, however little to be depended upon 
in other respects, is one of the best we can have 
with regard to his own suffering. Can you, a 
poet too! have forgotten that Nestor recom- 
mended Ajax and Ulysses, when they disputed 
the arms of Achilles after his death, to refer the 
decision not to their Grecian friends, but to 
their Trojan foes ? 

Tttvix.ct Tfwtnv i<p*>iAiv t'Ofyoirt rip>^t bxatrctt. 
4 Let theii some Trojans sage the strife decide :* 



78 milton's second defence. 

and, a few lines below : 

'Of get JtxjjK iB-ttxv tni <rQi<ri ttoiwovtou' 

Ou TIH VifU. $jp0VT£5, «T£* /JUC&A& 7TCiVTetq Aftf/AftS 

I<rw MTrsftS-ettpiiri, Kctx.v& [ASfAvti [*tvoi ecrta.* 
***** 
* Impartial these the doubtful cause will try ; 
For, deeply mindful of their Ilium's fate, 
With equal spleen each Grecian chief they hate/ 

Thus sings the bard of Smyrna, or Calabria* 
You must, therefore, be an insidious foe ; and 
seek to involve me in odium, by thus maliciously 
perverting and vitiating even the honest and 
correct judgement of an adversary, for the sake 
of inflicting upon me a deeper injury : so that 
both as a man, and as an enemy, you are most 
depraved. But I shall easily disappoint you, 
my good sir: for though I should anxiously 
wish to be an Ulysses, that is, to have deserved 
eminently well of my country, yet I have no 
ambition for the arms of Achilles ; no wish to 

* And by their decision the arms were adjudged, according to 
Horn. Odyss. xi. 546. 

upon which passage the Scholiast remarks, <bv\<x.TTopv>o(, 6 Ayu- 
Utiwui to h\ott San^u fcctpio-cto-S-cti rat vrtpi rat A%iAteai$ tnrXcn 
Mfjtt<purQnTWreiiv t xixyaotXuTiSq ra>v T^wuv »ya.ym 3 vpwTii<rtv vrre crtrtpx 
uvtm oi Teasg [accaaov iAvnvfrn<roi.v ; E»;re>vT«yv o\. ' l rov Ofba-et*' rut 
ui%U/et?iUT6>v 9 cJajAet^ij tKttvo* tivxi rov upi<?ov ttfu>otvTti r toi srtetfw 
AVTFnirxvTec rv$ *%$?%$> ^<>"* v wd-vq Tat OJWtr« Tit ottaoi. This wa& 
a much less invidious mode of determining the dispute, than 
that assigned by Ovid, in his Consedere duces, &c. 



milton's second defence. 79 

bear the ideal heaven portrayed on the shield, 
for others not myself to view in the combat, to 
take the real not ideal burthen on my shoulders, 
for myself not others to feel it's weight. 
Having no resentment or private quarrel with 
any man, and (as far as I know) no one having 
any quarrel with me, I am the less disposed to 
repine at the scurrilities and invectives, which I 
incur exclusively on the public account : and, 
without complaining that I have had a much 
greater share of the calumnies than the advan- 
tages connected with our late revolution, I sit 
down contented with the consciousness of 
having pursued, and of still pursuing, honour- 
able ends for themselves alone. Let the world 
know this; and learn you that of the weal 
and wealthiness, with which you upbraid me, I 
never partook ; and on that particular account, 
which forms the principal subject of your accu- 
sation, I never fingered a single doit.* 

* Saumaise, in his posthumous Reply, says, quatuor millia 
librorum te inde jam in reditu habere ferunt, qui mentiri nes- 
ciunt. Ut aliquid degustares, tibi dederunt aliqua rpayxtox, prop- 
ter quae istam (sc. tyrannidem) eorum defendendam suscepisti. 
These rp«yy«tA»a however, upon Toland's testimony, consisted in 
a donation of 1000/. : neither is it probable that he received 
more, if we consider his subsequent employment and mode of 
life ; and that at the highest computation, after deducting two 
losses of 2000/. each, he left less than 3000/. behind him for the 
subsistence of his family. 

Let us hear what he himself says, in his f Animadversions on 
the Remonstrant's Defence : • "Do they think that all these 



80 B1ILT0N*S SECOND DEFENCE. 

Enters More again, and in a second letter 
states the reasons of his writing — to whom? 
To the Christian Reader forsooth, More the 
adulterer and the seducer, Health ! A pious 
letter this promises to be ! " Now, for your 
reasons." The minds of all the nations of Europe, 
and more particularly of our French Hugonots, 
are roused to take cognisance of the parricide, 
fyc. $c. The Hugonots themselves have waged 
war with kings. What more they would have 
done, had they been more successful, cannot be 
positively stated ; but their kings, it is certain 
(if we may trust your national records) enter- 
tained no less apprehensions of them, than ours 
did of us : and they had sufficient grounds for 
their fears, in the numerous books and frequent 
manifestoes at that time circulated against them. 
Let them not then, whatever you may pretend, 
hold out gorgeous accounts of themselves, and 
unjust censures against us. 

But to the reasons : — / heme, lived in habits of 

meaner and superfluous things come from God, and the divine 
gift of learning from the den of Plutus or the cave of Mammon? 
Certainly never any clear spirit, nursed upon brighter influ- 
ences, with a soul enlarged to the dimensions of spacious art 
and high knowledge, ever entered there but with scorn, and 
thought it ever foul disdain to make pelf or ambition the reward 
of his studies ; it being the greatest honour, the greatest fruit 
and proficiency of learned studies, to despise these things.' ' 

The assertion which follows, relative to the French Hugo- 
nots, was repeated by More in his Reply, and repelled by 
Milton in his < Pro Se Defensio/ in nearly the same words. 



milton's second defence. 81 

so much Intimacy with Englishmen of superior 
character (these c superior characters/ in the es- 
timation of men of integrity, are c superior ' only 
in infamy) that I can safely affirm, I know 
these monsters thoroughly and to the bone. I 
thought you had c known } only your adulteresses 
and harlots ; do you ' know also monsters, tho- 
roughly and to the bone h* 

My English friends easily prevailed upon me 
to suppress my name : and a most discreet mea- 
sure of theirs it was ; that so they might profit 
more extensively by your impudence, and their 
cause might sustain less detriment from your 
character, which was even then bad enough. 
For they knew you well, what an excellent God 
of the Gardens* you were : they knew too that, 
though now a shorn and polished priest, you 
had not kept your hands from Pontia, who had 
undergone neither of those operations ;f and 
that (as the hangman, from his concern with 
carnage, is stiled Carnifex) it was not for nothing 
you, from your concern with Pontia, of a simple 



* Alluding to his garden-adventure. See a former Note. 
The Priapus of the ancients, who was chiefly worshipped at 
Lampsacus, forbade the birds, &c. novis considere in hortis. 
With reference to the same story, Milton subsequently calls him 
Episcopum Lampsacenum, ex horto Priapum, &c. 

t This passage, fortunately, precludes translation. The epi- 
thet Pilata in the original, combined with Pontia, obviously 
alludes to the Roman Governor of Judaea. 



%2 milton's second defence, 

priest appeared to yourself a Pontifex.* Though 
both yourself and others, however, could not 
but know all this, with incredible and abo- 
minable impiety you dare openly to profess, 
that you only study and vindicate the divine 
glory ; and, at the very time that you are en- 
gaged in the most criminal pursuits, charge 
others with disguising their crimes under the 
mask of godliness — the identical conduct, of 
which you yourself are most flagrantly and most 
dreadfully guilty. 

In drawing up the seines of events (you say) 
you have projited much by several writers, but 
particularly by the 6 Elenchus Motuum Nu- 
perorum in Anglia.'t Absurd indeed! After 

* A f Pope/ We cannot doubt that Milton, if he had lived 
in these times, would upon this occasion have quaintly profited 
by the name of our late respectable primate, Dr. Moore. 

t The Author of this work (Angl. * Exposure of the late 
Disturbances in England') of which the First Part originally 
appeared I believe in 1()51, was a Dr. George Bates, Principal 
Physician to Charles II. and according to the writer of 
the £ Flagellwn/ " a worthy and learned hand ; " and from 
him (Elench. II. 331. Ed. 1676.) Noble, in his ' Memoirs 
of the Protectoral-House of Cromwell ' relates a filthy story 
of the Protector, by which he forfeited in early life the good 
opinion of his uncle, Sir Oliver. (See I. 98. Note.) A 
Third Part (now rare) under the Title of f Motus Compo- 
siti/ containing an account of Monk's return from Scotland, 
and the Restoration of Charles II., was published by a Dr. 
Skinner. The Second Part, having been attached to a second 
edition of the First Part, drew from the pen of a Mr. Pugh ia 



milton's second defence. 83 

such a c cry ' to adduce nothing of your own, but 
a parcel of royalist writings, on that very ac- 
count undoubtedly to be suspected, and whose 
credit once overthrown puts an entire stop to 
your farther progress. I myself then will over- 
throw it, if necessary, by opposing one Eleii- 
chas to another ; and refute in due time, not 
your authorities by you, but you by your au- 
thorities. In the mean while, let us see how 
you support your own allegations, which are of 
a nature, when considered as proceeding from 
a debauchee and an atheist, to inspire every 
pious mind with horror. The love of God com- 



1664 a Reply, entitled c EJenckus Elenchi' (likewise scarce) 
to which Milton here, probably, alludes. When we read the 
terms, in which Milton is characterised by the first of these 
Royalist Doctors, we are not a little surprised at the lenity with 
which he treats his calumniator: Conductitio calamo scribes 
cujusdam Jilii, e vappd Pcedagogo in novitium Secretarium re-* 
cocti, utuntur ; qui natus ad satiras et scommata, coeno spur* 
cissimo oblita lingua, Eikovox.Xc&?ioiv adornaret, et gliscente livido 
ingenio, Jallaciis et qffuciis Regicidium approbaret contra Sal-* 
masium. (lb. p. 120.) 

The gall of his second antagonist, in 1676, does not appear to 
have been diluted by the lapse of years : Pudendis hisce prodito- 
rum exequiis deficit uuicl audax Me Orator dicam, an Siticen ; ut 
qui (Latinus Regum cojivitiator) parricidarum partes et scelera 
scriptis sustinuisset : nunc torvi oris Ludimagister defunctos lau- 
daret pro rostris, aid patibidarium saltern latronum elegidia 
caneret ; tot scelerum monstris dignus orator, poeta haud in- 
dignus. (P. 90.) 

Such was. the language of party, in characterising the Author 
of the. « Paradise Lest ! ' 

G 2 



84 milton's second defence. 

mands, and a deep sense of the injury offered to 
his holy name compels^ me to lift up my suppliant 
hands to heaven.* Down, clown with those 

* In the annual commemoration of this evenc, ordained by 
©ur church, it is to be regretted that the second lesson appointed 
for the Morning Service is Matt, xxvii. ; as it involves a 
parallel, of which, we shall presently observe, the royalists 
were but too much disposed to make a very profane use. More, 
elsewhere, mentions the sacrum Regis caput : and both he and 
Saumaise seem to have thought, beyond Shakspeare (and with- 
out the plea of poetry for the hyperbole) that " divinity 
doth not only hedge," but form, a king. Mr. Ofspriag Black- 
hall, Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty, even ventured in a 
Sermon preached on the thirtieth of January, 1698-9, before the 
Honourable House of Commons, to call him " the best of 
Kings, and the best of Men ! " to the manifest disparagement, 
as Toland observes, of such men as St. Paul, and Socrates, and 
William III. (Amyntor, p. 166.) : a Mr. Long of Exeter was 
for having some portions of his pretended book, the E<*w> 
B*ff-a<j«j, read in the church for the farther enlightening of our 
understanding ! ! and Dr. Perinchief tells us, in his l Life,' how 
some purchased chips of the block on which he was beheaded, 
and parcels of the sand discoloured with his blood, as also some 
of his hair ; " hoping (continues he) they would be a means of 
cure for that disease, which our English Kings, through the 
indulgence of kind Heaven, by their touch did usually heal : 
and it was reported that these reliques, experienced, failed not 
of the effect ! ! !" (lb. p. 170.) Nay, a Sermon was delivered 
February 4, 1 64^-9, on Luke xviii. SI — 33 (a passage pro- 
phetically, as it is said by the preacher, appointed by our 
Church to be read on that day) and published under the title of 
c The Devilish Conspiracy, Hellish Treason, Heathenish Con« 
demnation and Damnable Murther Committed and Executed 
by the Jews against the Anointed of the Lord, Christ their- 
King ;' &c. with an obviously implied reference, at which evea 
i piou* Tory must shudder. 



milton's second defence. 85 

filthy c hands,' which you thus audaciously 
raise, defiled with lust and ambition ; and pro- 
fane not heaven with paws, whose touch has so 
often polluted the hallowed mysteries of re- 
ligion : or you will hereafter find that you have 
called down the divine vengeance, which you 
so rashly and madly invoke against others, upon 
your own most guilty head. 

So far we have only had the preludes to 
* Cby.' Cry now, who plays the principal and 
indeed almost the only part in this drama, opens 
his mouth from ear to ear ; being on the point 
of mounting c to heaven,' where if he ever 
arrives, he will c cry' against nobody with so 
much vehemence, as against the Crier More 
himself. 

Since in all ages the majesty of kings has 
been held sacred, &c. # Much of your vulgar, 
and much of your malicious declamation, More, 
is wholly irrelevant. The murther of a king, 
and the execution of a tyrant, are very different 



* This is in complete sympathy with Mr. Burke : and indeed 
■" many of those doctrines, which disgust us with their naked 
deformity in the pages of the Leyden professor, have been with- 
drawn from our detestation under an embroidered and sparkling 
veil by the hand of the British politician." — <e His expatiating 
mind might range even the moors of Saumaise, to batten on 
their coarse produce ; and, finding them replenished with bitter 
springs, might be induced to draw from them, to feed the, lux- 
uriancy of his invective." (Symmons, pp. 358, 359:) 



86 milton's second defence. 

things ; perfectly so, indeed : they stand most 
widely asunder, and will so continue to stand as 
long as sense and reason, and law and justice, 
and the power of distinguishing between right 
and wrong are continued to mankind. But I 
have already said enough upon this subject, for 
every purpose of defence, again and again ; 
and will not permit him, whose many empty 
execrations have proved utterly ineffectual, to 
kill me with mere repetition. 

You, then, proceed to a fine disquisition upon 
patience and piety : but 

de virtute loquutus 

Clunem agitas : ego te ceventem, More, vereborf* 
****** 

—Whip me those, who virtue's name abuse ; 

And soil'd with all the vices of the times, 

Thunder damnation on their neighbour's crimes. 

Why should I shrink at More ? (Giffbrd.) 

All those of the Reformed Churches (you aver) 
particularly in Belgium and France, shuddered 
at our proceedings : and yet shortly afterward 
you add, the good were not every where at liberty 
to feel and to utter the same sentiment I But 
this self-contradiction is a trifle : what follows is 
much more horrible and atrocious. Compared 
with our guilt (you say) that of the Jews in 
crucifying Christ, zvhether we consider the in- 
tention or the issue, was a mere nothing ! ! ! t 

* Juv. Sat. ii. 21. 

t In a similar strain, General Digby (in a letter to the Duke 



milton's second defence. 87 

Madman! Do you, a Christian Minister, so 
lightly estimate the guilt of the crucifixion of 
Christ, whatever were it's c intention' or it's 
* issue,' as to dare to compare with it in hei- 
nousness the murther of any king ? The Jews, 
by the clearest evidences, might have known 
him to be the Son of God : we had no means of 
knowing Charles not to be a tyrant. And to 
refer to the ' issue,' as diminishing the guilt of 
an action, is most completely absurd. But I 
invariably perceive that the royalists, in propor- 
tion to their political zeal, bear more tolerantly 
an offence against their Saviour, than against 
their Sovereign : whence it appears, as they in- 
join subordination to governors chiefly for 



of Ormond) says, tc From the Creation of the world, to the 
accursed day of this damnable murther, nothing parallel to it 
was ever heard of; even the crucifying our Blessed Saviour, if 
we consider him only in human nature, did nothing equal 
it ! ! ! !" This vehemence of expression, not to say blasphemy, 
was far exceeded by a Bishop (Down), who declared " his 
privilege of inviolability far more elear than was Christ's;" 
and " the proceedings against him more illegal, and in many 
things more cruel :" and Rheese, or (as he chose to call him- 
self) Arise Evans, a Welch prophet, went still farther in 
affirming, that " Charles partook of Christ's divinity !!!!!" 
To the passages quoted in the text from the ? Cry of the 
Royal Blood, is added much curious reasoning upon the sub- 
ject, p. 5 of the edition of 1652. Hag. Com.; and a farther 
and more detailed comparison occurs, pp. 69, 70. Charles was 
himself too conscious of some of his frailties, to have been 
otherwise than offended with such profaneness as this, (See 
Noble, I. 121, Note.) 



88 milton's second defence. 

Christ's sake, that they have no real regard for 
either Christ or the King ; but, with some dif- 
ferent object in view, affect this incredible and 
idolatrous reverence of royalty, as a cloak for 
their ambitious or other clandestine and selfish 
pursuits. 

Sauniaise therefore, the great prince of letters y 
stepped forth. Prithee, have done with this 
repeated c great;' which, a thousand times 
re-echoed, will only convince the intelligent, 
not that Saumaise is 'great,' but that More 
is very little and very despicable, for apply- 
ing this appellation with such gross impro- 
priety and so total a neglect of decorum. In- 
dustry, and the knowledge of letters, and the 
praise and profit of no contemptible stock of 
learning we willingly allow to grammarians 
and critics, whose chief credit consists in pub- 
lishing the lucubrations of commentators, or 
correcting the errors of copyists : but we never 
lavish upon them the surname of ' great.' 
He only is to be denominated c great,' who 
either achieves or inculcates great actions, or 
writes upon them greatly : * and those actions 



* This passage, as we learn from Milton's 'Pro Se Defensio,' 
attracted his adversary's sarcastic observation : Qui res magnas 
docet, ut Miltonus de Divortiis ! aut digne scribit, ut Miltonus 
idem pro Popido ! Bis magnus ! ! Pity ! that he could supply 
no instance, from his bookish life, of the first clause of the 
definition, qui res magnas gerit ; in order to have complimented 
him, ironically, with the higher allusion of Trismegistus ! 



milton's second DEFENCE. 89 

only are great, which either make this life 
happy, or at least honourably comfortable and 
agreeable, or lead to another and a better state 
of existence. Of these, what has Saumaise 
achieved ? Nothing. What then has he incul- 
cated great, or written greatly ? Except indeed 
what he wrote against Bishops, and the Pope's 
Supremacy ; and that he subsequently recanted 
— practically by his conduct, and actually by 
what he published against me in favour of Epis- 
copacy. Little, therefore, is the name of c great' 
deserved by him, who so shamefully retracted 
the best work he ever composed. 

He may however be c the prince of letters/ 
the very captain of the Christ-Cross-row, with 
all my heart. But this does not satisfy you : 
He must be not only \ the prince of letters,' 
but the patron of kings, and a patron worthy 
of such illustrious clients. A noble addition 
this, to be subjoined by kings to their other high 
titles, c Clients of Claude Saumaise!' For 
this then, ye kings, you are emancipated from 



With regard to the apostasy imputed below to Saumaise on 
the subject of Episcopacy, he had attacked Bishops, in a work 
entitled < Be Presbyteris et Episcopis 9 (Lugd. Bat. 1641, 8vo.) 
under the fictitious name of Wallo Messalinus, with the utmost 
acrimony. This drew upon him the deserved rebuke of hi* 
friend Claude Sarrau, a councillor in the parliament of Paris: 
Hoc seme dicent esse ra nctipcp $xtevuv y potius quam rjj etAyS-tux, 
Tn&irSui — Par. 1650. Feb. 18. See also his Letters, dated 
March 5, and 12. (Symmons, p. 352, not. Jc.) 



90 MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE, 

all other laws, to pass under the protection of 
the grammarian Saumaise, and vail your sceptres 
to his ferula. So long as the world shall last, 
kings will owe to him the support of their dig- 
nity and their safety. Hear, princes, hear ! 
Your miserable defender, in fact no defender at 
all — for no one attacked you — ascribes to him- 
self c the support of your dignity and your 
safety V Such is the sole fruit accruing to those, 
who summoned this arrogant grammarian from 
his realm of moths and of bookworms, to main- 
tain the rights of kings ! Neither will the Church 
he less indebted to him, than royalty itself: that 
is, both will equally owe him, not thanks or 
praise, but the merited stigma of having alike 
deserted them both. 

And now, for your prodigal panegyric upon 
' The Royal Defence/ Here you are lost in 
astonishment at the genius, the learning, the 
immense experience, the profound stores of laxv 
sacred and profane, and the vigorous vehemence 
and eloquent fluency of that golden work ! Of 
all which I except to every syllable (for what 
has Saumaise to do with eloquence ?) except 
the term * golden,' an epithet which the com- 
position richly deserves an hundred times over — 
from the hundred pieces of gold that Charles 
paid for it, not to mention what the Prince of 
Orange farther lavished on the same account. 

The great man never appeared greater, never 
more a Saumaise — so much c greater' indeed. 



milton's second defence. 91 

that he burst ! How c great* he was in that 
work, we have already seen ; and if, as it is re- 
ported, he has left any thing posthumous upon 
the same subject, we shall probably see it too in 
due season. I admit that, upon it's publication, 
Saumaise was the theme of every tongue, par- 
ticularly among the royalists ; and that he was 
invited by her Szvedish Majesty, with the pro- 
mise of abundant rewards. In fact, throughout 
the whole controversy, every thing was in his 
favour, and almost every thing against me. In 
the first place, his erudition stood very high in 
the general opinion, raised during a series of 
many years by his compilation of many books— 
f great* enough indeed in point of size, but not 
particularly useful from the abstruseness of 
their subjects, and their copious citations of 
the deepest writers ; circumstances these, how- 
ever, peculiarly calculated to generate vulgar 
admiration : whereas scarcely any one abroad 
knew, who I was. He by his unusual attention 
to the work, which in truth it well deserved, 
had excited f great* expectations of his labours ; 
whilst I had not been able to stir up any expec- 
tation of mine. Nay, many went so far as to 
dissuade me from them, representing me as a 
novice about to cope with a veteran in letters ; 
partly perhaps as envying me the glory even of 
having entered the lists with such an antago- 
nist, and partly as alarmed at once for me and 



92 milton's second defence. 

for my cause, lest my defeat should inflict in* 
curable disgrace upon both. Finally, a spe- 
cious and plausible subject, the inveterate pre* 
judice or rather superstition of the vulgar, and 
their general bias in favour of royalty, gave 
strength and confidence to Saumaise, but were 
all hostile to myself. And this renders it the 
more surprising, as soon as my c Reply 5 came 
out — not, indeed, that it was greedily seized by 
numbers, who were anxious to see what adven- 
turous spirit durst cope with Saumaise; but 
that it gave such general satisfaction (with 
reference to it's accuracy, not it's author) as to 
strip my adversary in his high and palmy state 
of all his honours, tear from him the mask 
under which he had previously lurked, and sink 
at once both his character and his courage, so 
that with all his efforts he never during the re- 
mainder of his life was able to emerge. Upon 
you,* most Serene Queen of Sweden, and your 
acute discernment, he was not long able to im- 



* Here commences what Warton (ib. p. 4p2) calls Mil- 
ton's " prolix and most splendid" panegyric on Christina, dic- 
tated by the supposition that she had dismissed Saumaise from 
her court on account of his ' Defence of the King : ' a suppo- 
sition, which he elsewhere however affirms (Note, p. 483) to 
have been as much without foundation, as the praises engrafted 
upon it. Gallantry and ostentation, particularly in what re- 
garded letters, seem to have been the leading traits of her cha* 
racter ; and an intrigue with a scholar answered both ends. 



milton's second defence. 93 

pose : You were the first, I might almost say, 
the heavenly example of preferring truth to the 
spirit of party. For though you had sent for 
the man, on account of his extraordinary emi- 
nence as a scholar and his defence of royalty, 
and received him with the utmost respect ; yet 
upon the publication and your very impartial 
perusal of my * Reply/ when you found that 
he stood convicted of the grossest corruption 
and vanity, of having advanced many frivolous 
and many extravagant positions (beside many 
palpable self-contradictions, which on your per- 
sonal application to him, it is said, he was 
unable either to explain or to justify) you dis- 
continued from that time your particular atten- 
tions to him, lowered your estimate of his 
talents and his learning, and against the general 
expectation obviously showed yourself most 
favourably disposed toward his adversary. For 
what was urged by him against tyrants, you 
maintained, had no reference to you : whence 
you enjoyed both the feeling, and the credit, of 
having always acted from the best of motives. 
Your conduct, indeed, satisfactorily proves, 
that you are not a tyrant; and this explicit 
declaration of your opinion still more clearly 
evinces, that you do not feel yourself to be 
one. O happiness beyond my hopes! — for I 
affect no eloquence, except that which is con- 
nected with the persuasive power of truth — 
that, when I had fallen upon such a period of 



94 milton's second defence. 

my country as rendered it necessary for me, in 
the defence of an arduous and invidious cause, 
to seem to impugn the rights of all kings, I 
should have met with so illustrious, so truly- 
princely an interpreter of my integrity, to bear 
witness that I had assailed with my censures 
not kings, but tyrants, their bitterest and most 
pestilential foes ! O magnanimous Queen 1 
guarded and fortified on every side by a degree 
of virtue and wisdom more than human ! Not 
only thus to peruse a work, which might seem 
at the first glance directed against your royal 
right and dignity, with an impartial and un- 
ruffled mind, an incredible candor of feeling, 
and an undisturbed serenity of countenance ; 
but also to pronounce such a verdict against 
your advocate, as to be generally supposed to 
have adjudged the victory to his opponent ! 
With what respect, what veneration ought I not 
always to treat you, whose high virtue and 
magnanimity (to yourself so honourable) have 
to me proved so fortunate, as to have exempted 
me from all discreditable suspicion with other 
sovereigns, and by this important and infinite 
kindness bound me to your service for ever! 
How much ought the subjects of other princes 
to value, and your own both to value and to 
hope from your justice and equity, when in an 
affair appearing directly to involve your royal 
dignity, you were thus observed deciding with 
as little agitation and as much composure about 



milton's second defence* 9B 

your own rights, as you do about those of your 
people ! You have, likewise, judiciously formed 
a prodigious collection of books, and other 
literary monuments; not as if you yourself 
could thence derive any information, but that 
your subjects might by them be enabled to ap- 
preciate your virtue and wisdom ; wisdom, 
which if she had not taken entire possession of 
your mind, and presented herself as it were to 
your actual view, could never by any intensity 
of study have generated in you such an un~ 
parallelled attachment. Hence it is, that we dis- 
cover with so much astonishment your celestial 
vigour of understanding, your perfect quin- 
tessence of intellect, in those high northern 
latitudes ; unshrunk and unquenched by the 
frosts of a cheerless and tempestuous climate, 
and wholly insensible to the influences of a 
rough and intractable soiL That land of mines 
on the contrary, with all a stepmother's harsh- 
ness to others, to you a genial parent, appears 
to have produced you by one mighty effort, a 
mass of virgin gold. I should call you the 
daughter and heiress of the great Adolphus,* 

* Christina succeeded her father, Gustavus Adolphus, on the 
throne of Sweden in 1633. After a reign of twenty one years, 
however, she resigned it to her cousin Charles Gustavus, re- 
serving only to herself an annuity of 20,000 crowns ; and, 
upon his death in 1660, wished in vain to re-ascend it. In 
1689, she died at Rome, the religion of which through the in- 
fluence of the Jesuits she had embraced before her resignation ; 



9& milton's second defence. 

were you not to be placed above him in pro- 
portion as wisdom surpasses strength, and the 
arts of peace* the pursuits of war. Henceforth, 
exclusive commendations shall no longer be 
lavished upbn the Queen of the South.* The 

having previously, in compliment to the reigning Pontiff, 
(Alexander VII.) assumed the additional name of { Alexandra.' 
* 1 Kings. In reference to this Sovereign, Bochart (one of 
the Swedish school) wrote the following distich : 

Ilia docenda suis Solomonem invisit ab oris :_ 
Undique ad Hanc docti, quo doceantur, eunt. 

The reader may not be displeased to see half a dozen others, 
written by M. Sarrau on receiving either from Vossius, or 
from Christina herself, a gold medallion bearing on it's obverse 
her head as Pallas Galeata, with an olive-branch before her, 
and on the reverse a Sun. 



Attica falsa Juit, sed vera hcec Arctica Pallas 
Dicere vie venim, Sol mihi testis adest. 



Si coluisse voles Phcebum et coluisse Minervam, 
Tu cole Christinam ; numen utrumque coles. 

in. 
Objectam Pallas Galeata aspectat olivam : 
Elige seu pacem, seu magis arma velis. 

IV. 

Imperio digna hcec fades armata Minervje, 
Solis ab Eoo cardine ad Hesperium. 

v. 

Sol, radios expande tuos ; ecce cemula terns 
Christina qffiilget lumine inocciduo* 



milton's second defence. 97 

North, likewise, has now it's queen ; worthy 
not only to visit the sage king of Israel, or any 
one that may hereafter resemble him, but to be 
herself visited by others as a model of every 
royal virtue, and a heroine deserving of uni- 
versal regard : to whose high deserts no earthly 
eminence is equal, since her lowest praise is 
that she is a queen, the sovereign of so many 
nations. But it is not her lowest praise, that 
she herself feels it to be so, and meditates, some- 
thing much loftier than empire — a circum- 
stance, which alone raises her above most kings. 
She may then, if such be the sad destiny of 
Sweden, renounce the crown ; but she can 
never lay aside the queen, having proved herself 
worthy to sway the sceptre not of Sweden alone, 
but of the universe. 

For my digression into the well-earned pane- 
gyric of this excellent princess,* I trust I 

VI. 

Attica quae quondam fuer at , nunc Atactica, Pallas 
Dat sua, dat PhcEBi plenissima munera terris. 

(Sarrav. Epist. ccxxx.) 
« That this panegyric was not ' well-earned/ will perhaps 
be concluded by many of those,, who may read Warton's Not. 
ib. p. 488, and the affecting story of her treatment of the 
Marquis Monaldeschi. Milton's partiality to her, however, 
we may farther collect from the verses written under a por-» 
trait of the Protector, which was sent to her as an official 
compliment. Those lines, Bellipotens virgo, &c. (Wart, ib.) 
ascribed to Milton positively by Newton and Birch, and inde- 

H 



98 milton's second defence. 

shall be both pardoned, and commended : as I 
could not have passed her over, even amidst the 
silence of others, without the deepest ingra- 
titude ; having by some most fortunate fatality, 
some hidden consent and concurrence of stars 
or feelings or circumstances, found in her (whom 
most I wished, but least expected) an arbitress 
so impartial, and so favourable, at the utmost 

eisively by Toland, are claimed for Marvell by Warton ; but 
re-asserted, in a conclusive Note, by Dr. Symmons, whose ver- 
sion of them I subjoin : 

' Imperial Maid, great arbitress of war ! 
Queen of the Pole ! yourself it's brightest star I 
Cliristina, view this helmet-furrow'd brow, 
This age, that arms have worn but cannot bow ; 
As through the pathless wilds of fate I press, 
And bear the people's purpose to success. 
Yet see ! to you this front submits it's pride : 
Thrones are not always by it's frown defied.' (C. S.) 

The original, Warton pronounces " simple and sinewy" — 
but " too great a compliment to Christina, who was contemp- 
tible both as a queen and a woman." " An ample and lively 
picture (he adds) of her court, politics, religion, intrigues, 
rambles, and masquerades is to be gathered from Thurloe's 
" State- Papers !" See also a pithy Note upon her in Dr. S.'s 
Life, p. 428 (a). A Life of this extraordinary woman (now 
rare) appeared in 1658, entitled e The Histojy of the Sacred 
and Royal Majesty of Christina Alessandra, Queen of Swed- 
land, &c. ; ' written by Count Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato, and 
translated by John Burbery. The comparative pittance of 
20,000 crowns per ann. y it is almost painful to add, was but 
irregularly paid. 



milton's second defence. 99 

extremity of the world. I must now resume 
the very different labour, which I left behind. 

Our party (you say) were dismayed by the 
character of ' The Royal Defence,' and looked 
out for some half starved petty schoolmaster, to 
lend his venal pen to the vindication of parri- 
cide. This most malignant fiction you devised, 
remembering that the royalists, when they were 
* looking out ' for a mouth-piece of their lies and 
invectives, applied to Saumaise — a grammarian, 
if not hungry for bread, certainly too thirsty 
for gold ; who not only most readily sold them 
his secret services, but threw his soundness of 
intellect (if, indeed, he ever had any) into the 
bargain : remembering that Saumaise in his lost 
and ruined condition, when he was ' looking out* 
for some one to assist in patching up his torn 
and tattered character, was induced by the re- 
tributive impulse of the Almighty to apply to 
you — not a pastor of Geneva, for thence you 
had been ejected, but a Bishop of Lampsacus, 
a genuine God of the Gardens, and finally the 
polluter of his house ; which led him on his 
death-bed, nauseating the flummery he had so 
disgracefully purchased of you, and exchanging 
his friendship for violent enmity, to imprecate 
bitter curses on the head of his panegyrist. 

At last they found one, and a formidable hero 
he was, to oppose to Saumaise, John Milton I 
I did not know that I was a c a hero,' though 
you may very probably be a hero's son, for you 

h 2 



100 milton's second defence* 

are a complete pest* But that I alone was 
found to defend the cause of the people of 
England, as far as their interest was at stake, 
gave me true concern, though I am proud to 
stand single in their approbation. 

It is doubtful (you subjoin) who, and ivhat I 
am ;— So it was, of old, with regard to Homer 
and Demosthenes. I had learned, in fact, to 
keep in check my tongue and my pen, which 
Saumaise never could ; and I concealed within 
my breast many things which, had I then pro- 
duced them, would long since have earned me 
the distinction I now possess. But I did not 
greedily woo coy renown, and should not ever 
have brought forward even my late labours, 
had not imperious occasion called them forth ; 
little solicitous that others should be apprised 
of the extent of my acquirements, and seeking 
not fame, but opportunity, in my publications :f 
whence I became known to great numbers, 
long before Saumaise became known to him- 

* For the illustration of the proverb, Heroum jilii noxce, 
see Erasm. Adag. 

t Upon this subject is preserved a MS. letter in the library 
of Trinity College, Cambridge, written to a friend in his 
" three and twentieth yeere;" wherein he represents himself 
as " kept off with a sacred reverence and religious advisement 
how best to undergoe ; not taking thought of being late, so it 
give advantage to be more fit," &c. Erras, More (subjoins 
our Epic Marcellus, in his ( Pro Se Defensio') et me non 
nosti ; mihi lente crescere, et velut occulta csvo, satius semper 
fuit. 



milton's second defence. 101 

self, though now he is better known than Tom 
Fool.* 

— A man, or a worm. I had rather in truth 
be, what even the Psalmist pronounces himself, a 
worm,i than bear in my bosom that worm of 
yours, which will never die. 

It is reported (you continue) that he was 
vomited forth for his profligacy from the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, and sought shelter from 
his disgrace abroad in Italy. From this single 
statement you may infer the degree of credit 
due to those persons, upon whose authority you 
adduce your hear-say evidence against me : for 
that both you and they are here guilty of a 
most impudent lie, is known to all who know 
me, and I will still more satisfactorily prove in 
the sequel. And why, if I had been expelled 
from Cambridge, should I < seek shelter' in 
c Italy,' rather than in France or Holland ; 
where you with all your infamy are tolerated as 
a minister of the gospel, and live in impunity, 
and are allowed to mount the pulpit, and to the 
deep disgrace of that church defile with your 
polluted hands it's hallowed mysteries ? Why, I 
say, in ' Italy?' Like a modern Saturn, for- 
sooth, I must fly to Latium,:f as a lurking- 
place. No, More : I had before known, and 

* Andremone notior est caballo. 
t Psalm xxii. 6. 

X Ut alicubi laterem. To this last word, etymologists refer 
the derivation of Latium. 



102 

then found, c Italy' to be, not (as you insi- 
nuate) the receptacle and asylum of reprobates, 
but the seat of polite literature and all civil 
learning. 

Upon his return, he wrote a Tract on Di« 
vorces.* I only wrote what had previously 
been written at great length by Bucer in his 
* De Regno ChristiJ Fagius on Deuteronomy, 
Erasmus! (with particular reference to English- 

* His four successive Treatises upon this subject were respect- 
ively entitled, e The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' 
' The Judgement of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce,' { Te- 
trachordon/ and ' Colasterion.' Upon the third of these, 
which " contained an Exposition of the Four Passages ( Gen. 
i. 27, 28., Deut. xxiv. 1, 2., Matt. v. 31, 32., and 1 Cor. vii. 
IS, 16.) in the Sacred Writings, supposed more immediately to 
respect the permanency of the marriage-obligation," Warton 
has a note worth consulting, ib. p. 338. Johnson, it is some- 
what surprising, does not mention the fourth ; nor, indeed, the 
'■ Tractate upon Education/ in it's regular place. 

t These, with the addition of Martyr, are again enumerated 
in the f Pro Se Defensio/ as having previously maintained his 
opinions on the question of Divorce. Martin Bucer, an Alsa- 
tian and a Dominican friar, was converted to Protestantism by 
the writings of Erasmus and Luther, and by Cardinal Contarini 
represented as the most formidable foe of the Church of Rome. 
Paul Fagius, a German (whose real name was Buchlein) by 
his Notes on the Pentateuch, printed in folio, 1546, and after- 
ward published among the Critici Sacri, contributed greatly to 
diffuse the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue. They both, on 
the request of Archbishop Cranmer, came over to England in 
154-9 > an( l by him were sent to Cambridge, where Bucer was 
made Divinity Professor, and employed in a new translation of 
the Scriptures. They died within a year of each other, Fagius 
in 1550, and Bucer in 1551 ; and both their bodies were taken 



Milton's second defence. 103 

men) on 1 Corinthians, and many other emi- 
nent men for the general good. Why I exclu- 
sively should be condemned for that, which 
drew no censure down upon my predecessors, I 
do not understand : I am only sorry that I wrote 
it in the vernacular tongue,* as it exposed me to 

up and burnt in Mary's reign : so that, like Saul and Jonathan, 
they might be pronounced " lovely and pleasant in their lives, 
and in their deaths scarcely divided." About the same time 
Peter Martyr, a Florentine, whose family-name was Vermilius, 
laid down his habit as an Augustine, accepted the invitation of 
Edward VI., and was appointed to the divinity-chair, along 
with a canonry of Christ Church, in the Sister-University. 
Luckily for his bones, he died at Zurich ; but his wife (a nun 
who, like Bucer's, had quitted her vows) was exposed to Mary's 
pious fury, and to Elizabeth's gentler compensations, with 
equal insensibility : 

Id cinerem, ant Manes credis curare sepultos ? 

Of Erasmus, who in the course of his migratory life became 
Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, and also Greek Pro- 
fessor at Cambridge, Dr. Jortin with his usual learning and 
candor has written an ample account. He published the first 
edition of the Greek Testament, in folio, in 1516. But he was 
universally reproached as being a trimmer in religion, partly 
from a fear of the power, and partly from a regard for the 
friendship, of his schoolfellow Adrian VI. then Pope. He 
himself, in a letter upon the subject, says; Non omnes ad 
martyrium satis habent roboris. Vcreor ne, si quid incident 
tumultus, Petrum sim imitaturus. (DLXXXIII.) 

* A similar abhorrence of ' vernacular' composition appears 
to have influenced Doctor William King, and the Editor of 
Bellendenus. The former says, Spero me impetrare posse ah 
eruditorum omnium consensu, ut ne quis, me invito, hanc Ora- 
tionem (sc f Oxon. hab. Id. Apr. 1749, Die Dedications Bib- 



104 milton's second defence. 

the perusal of vulgar readers, who are usually 
blind to their own blessings, and scurrilous 
upon the misfortunes of others. But that you, 
you worthless fellow, should make a blustering 
about £ divorces,' who after debauching Pontia 
under a promise of marriage, most inhumanly 
broke with her by the worst of ' divorces ! ■ — 
And yet this poor English* girl in Saumaise's 
service was, it is said, a strong royalist : so that 
you loved her as a kingly, and abandoned her 
as a commont concern : an apostasy this (from 
the king to the commons) which, however you 
profess to hate, you yourself caused; trans- 
ferring her, by a total subversion of Saumaise's 
authority, to the service of the public. And of 
this kind, with all your royalism, you are said to 
have founded, or on the foundation of others to 
have administered, in one city many public 
concerns. These are your c divorces,' or rather 

liothecse Radcliviange') in sermonem patrium vertat : and the 
latter/ in allusion to the version of his celebrated ' Preface,' 
observes ; Quod ea quae Latine scripseram, Anglice jam, me 
neque hortante neque sciente, conversa sint vehementer doleo. 
Aures quippe mece solent respuere c Luge' illudet ' Sophos,' quod 
ab infima plebeculd captant ii, qui de rebus Politicis raptim et 

turbulente scriptitant : qui famam, Sfc. Hoc igitur me asse- 

qui turn, cum Latine scriberem, posse existimavi, ut Prcefatio 
mea in multitudinis manus non veniret ; qua quidem in re, cum 
versio ejm ex improviso facta sit, frustra fui. (Prooem. p. 5.) 
* By Heinsius called Hebe Caledonia (Burm. Syllog. iii. 
670) but by Vossius, ib. pp. 64<3, 650, 651, Anglkana puella. 
See also ib. pp. 647, 658, 662, 663, and ii. 748. 
: f Res publica. 



MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 105 

your diving-places,* whence you emerge a per- 
fect Curius against me. Now for another lie. 

While the conspirators were deliberating about 
the King's fate, he wrote them a letter, zvhich 
determined their wavering minds to his de- 
struction. I did not c write them a letter/ 
neither was any such extrinsic impulse wanting 
to those, who had already resolved upon that 
measure without my interference. What I did 
write upon that subject, as well as against the 
Icon (Basilike),i shall be stated in the sequel. 

And now, since this — man, shall I call him, or 
scum of men ?— has laboured to render my name 
infamous among foreign nations by a long string 
of falsehoods, I entreat that no one would mis- 
interpret, or criminate, or nauseate me for 
having spoken, or continuing to speak, about 
myself so much more than I should naturally 
have chosen to do :t that if I cannot rescue my 

* Diverticula. The Curius of the passage refers to the 

Qui Curios simulant, et Bacchanalia vivunt. 

(Juv. ii. 3.) 

•j- See the subject of this composition discussed by Dr. 
Symmons, pp. 321 — 34>5. Milton's Reply was entitled, ' Ico* 
noclastes;' and received two answers, Emm AkXu^oc, in 1651, 
and ' Vindicice Carolince* in 1692. A pamphlet likewise, 
which made it's appearance in 1649 with the title of E^y 
AtoStvri, advancing the charge of spuriousness against the Icon, 
was answered the same year by a very inferior writer in a pam- 
phlet entitled Eacm it U try. 

f For this necessary egotism he again apologises in the be* 



106 milton's second defence. 

eyes from blindness, and my name from oblivion 
or calumny, I may at least rescue my moral 
character from that obscurity which is coupled 
with ignominy. And this, on more accounts 
than one. First, to prevent those excellent and 
learned men upon the neighbouring parts of 
the Continent, who now read and approve my 
works, from being affected by this fellow's scur- 
rilities : and to convince them that I have never 
polluted honourable writings by a dishonourable 
life, the language of a freeman by the conduct 
of a slave, but have always under God's good 
guidance kept myself aloof from every thing 
mean and profligate : next, that the illustrious 
and praiseworthy objects of my panegyric may 
be assured, I should think nothing more shame- 
ful than to utter their praises, if I were con- 
scious of myself deserving censure or repro- 
bation ; and, finally, to satisfy the people of 
England (whom I have been impelled either by 
my destiny, or my sense of duty, as well as by 
their virtue, to defend) that having always led 
a life of purity and honour, if I have not done 
them credit, I have certainly not disgraced 

ginning of his ' Pro Se Defensio ; ' and Bentley will complete 
his justification : " Mr. Boyle is pleased somewhere to send me 
to Hermogenes' chapter^ rifpt m uvi^a.y^rwc, tavrov incctvuv, ' How 
a man may commend himself without envy or fulsomeness : * 
and I find there that, one may safely do it, ' when detraction 
and calumny make it necessary/ " (Pref. to Diss, on Phalaris, 
Ed. 1777, p. xxv.) 



milton's second defence. 10? 

them, by my Defence. ' Who then, and what I 
am,' I will now state. 

I was born in London, of a respectable family. 
My father was a man of approved integrity ; 
and my mother an excellent woman, particu- 
larly distinguished in the neighbourhood by her 
numerous charities. My father destined me, # 
while I was yet a child, to the study of elegant 
literature ; and so eagerly did I seize upon it, 
that from my twelfth year I seldom quitted my 
studies for my bed till midnight. This proved 
the first cause of the ruin of my eyes, in 
addition to the natural weakness of which 
organs, I was afflicted with frequent pains in 
my head. When all these maladies were unable 
to restrain my rage for learning, my father pro- 
vided that I should be daily instructed in some 
school abroad, and by other tutors at home. 
Thus initiated in various languages, and with no 
light relish for the sweets of philosophy^ I 

* See his < Ad Patrem,; vv. 73, &c. 

t In the same spirit, the Second Brother in Comus (476--* 
480) exclaims, 

' How charming is divine philosophy ! 
Not harsh, and crabbed (as dull fools suppose) 
But musical as is Apollo's lute, 
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, 
Where no crude surfeit reigns/ 

The honour of Milton's early institution belongs to St. Paul's 
school, at that time under the care of Alexander Gill, author of 
an ingenious but subtile scheme to reform and fix the English 



108 milton's second defence. 

was sent to Cambridge, one of the two national 
universities ; where I spent seven years in the 
ordinary studies and pursuits of the place, pure 
from every blemish and possessed of the uni- 
versal esteem of the good, till I took with 
credit my degree (as it is called) of Master of 
Aits. I then went, not as this miscreant falsely 
states, into c Italy,' but home;* and left be- 
hind me a memory cherished with affection by 
the greater part of the fellows of my college, 
who had always assiduously cultivated my re- 
gard. At my father's country-residence, whither 
he had retired to spend his age in quiet, I de- 
voted my whole leisure to the perusal of the 

language, published under the title of c Logonomia ' in 162 1 . The 
son/ of the same name, Milton's great friend, and an admira- 
ble Latin poet, after an ushership of sixteen years (1619 — 1635) 
succeeded his father as head-master of that seminary. Milton 
had, previously, been under the tuition of Thomas Young (sub- 
sequently Pastor of the Church of English Merchants at Ham- 
burgh) a puritan in Essex, says Aubrey, who cut his hair 
short ; and to him, to whom he probably owed his religious pecu- 
liarities, he addressed his Fourth * Elegy/ and the First and 
Fourth of his c Familiar Epistles.' This gentleman afterward, 
returning to England, became a member of the Assembly of 
Divines, was one of the authors of the book entitled ' Smec- 
tymnuus' defended by Milton, and received from Parliament 
the appointment to the headship of Jesus College, Cambridge, 
whence he was finally ejected for refusing the engagement. 
Milton's academical residence was Christ's College. 

* Horton, near Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire, where he spent 
five years (1632 — 1637), justly to be regarded as the hap- 
piest of his life. 



milton's second defence. 109 

Greek and Latin classics ; not however so un- 
interruptedly, but that I occasionally paid a visit 
to town, either to purchase books, or to make 
some fresh acquisition in mathematics or in 
music,* which were at that time my chief 
sources of delight. After ^ve years thus em- 
ployed, on my mother's death having a strong 
desire to visit foreign countries, particularly 
Italy, I obtained my father's consent, and at- 
tended only by a single servant set off on my 
travels. Upon my departure, I was favoured 
with a very friendly and elegant letter,t con- 
taining good wishes and directions of the utmost 
value to any one going abroad, by the cele- 



* Milton's father had himself been educated at Christ Church.. 
Oxford, and (as we learn from Aubrey) was very fond of 
music, in which he instructed his son. He even composed 
several pieces, we are told by his grandson Philips, and others ; 
and appears, also, to have been an author. For his care of the 
poet's education, he was nobly repaid by the above-quoted ' Ad 
Patrem' (Warton, ib. p. 519) ; and yet one cannot help re- 
gretting that, with his taste, he did not live to witness the pro- 
duction, if not the popularity, of the * Paradise Lost.' 

f This letter, dated f Eton, April 13, 1638,' after some high 
compliments on the ' Comus,' is chiefly remarkable for repeating 
the advice, which the writer had himself received from Alberto 
Scipioni (" an old Roman courtier in dangerous times") with 
regard to the mode of " carrying himself securely at Rome, 
without offence of others or of his own conscience." I pen- 
sieri stretti ed il viso sciolto, ' Thoughts close and looks loose, 
is a maxim however not exclusively adapted to the modern 
Babylon, but e< will go safely (as he added) over the whole 
world." The entire epistle is inserted in his Life by Dr. 
Symmons. 



110 milton's second defence. 

brated Henry Wotton, who had long resided at 
Venice as Envoy from King James. With this 
and other recommendations, I was most kindly 
received at Paris by the Rt. Hon. Thomas 
Scudamore, Viscount Sligo, Embassador from 
King Charles, and in his name introduced by 
some of his suite to the learned Hugo Gro- 
tius* (at that time, Embassador from the Queen 
of Sweden to the French court) to whom I was 

* Author of the able and argumentative Tract, e De Ve- 
ritate Religionis Christiance," of a Treatise ' De Satisfactions 
Christi, adv. F. Socinum Senensem, 9 and Poemata (including 
two Tragedies, e Christus Pattens 9 and f Sophompaneas ,-') 
beside the larger work, f Annotationes in V. et N. Teste* 
mentuniy and his profound disquisition e De Jure Belli ac 
Pads, &c. &c.' His character is splendidly drawn by Mackin- 
tosh : " He combined the discharge of the most important 
duties of active and public life with the attainment of that 
exact and various learning, which is generally the portion only 
of the recluse student. He was distinguished as an advocate, 
and as a magistrate, and he composed the most valuable works 
on the law of his own country : he was almost equally celebrated 
as an historian, a scholar, a poet, and a divine ; a disinterested 
statesman, a philosophical lawyer, a patriot who united modera- 
tion with firmness, and a theologian who was taught candor 
by his learning. Unmerited exile did not damp his patriotism : 
the bitterness of controversy did not extinguish his charity. 
The sagacity of his numerous and fierce adversaries could riot 
discover a blot on his character; and, in the midst of all the 
hard trials and galling provocations of a turbulent political life, 
he never once deserted his friends when they were unfortunate, 
nor insulted his enemies when they were weak. In times of 
the. most furious civil and religious faction, he preserved his 
name unspotted ; and he knew how to reconcile fidelity to hi* 
own party with moderation toward his opponents." ( Discourse 
on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations, pp. 16, 17-) 



miltgn's second defence, lit 

extremely solicitous to pay my respects. He 
likewise farther, on my setting off a few days 
afterward for Italy, gave me letters to the 
English merchants on my way, directing them 
to render me every service in their power, 
From Nice I went by sea to Genoa, and thence 
through Leghorn and Pisa to Florence. At 
Florence, which was always my chief favourite, 
on account both of the purity of it's dialect 
and the talents of it's inhabitants, I spent about 
two months ; and there I presently became ac- 
quainted with many noble and literary charac- 
ters, and constantly attended the private Aca- 
demies,* judiciously instituted in that city for 
the advancement of learning and the cementing 
of friendships among it's votaries. Nor shall 
any lapse of time efface the ever-pleasing, ever- 
delightful remembrance of Giacomo Gaddi, 
Carlo Dati, Frescobaldo, Cultellino, Buonmat- 
tei, Clementillo, Francini,t and many others 



* Of these, Venerorii enumerates 4 at Rome, 5 at Florence, 
5 at Bologna, 3 at Venice, 4 at Padua, 3 at Naples, 1 at 
Genoa, 3 at Sienna, 2 at Lucca, and 1 at Milan, Mantua, 
Macerata, Alessandria, Ancona, Brescia, Cesena, Faibriano, 
Faenza, Fermo, Ferrara, Parma, Pavia, Perugia, Treviso, Ve- 
rona, Vicenza, Viterbo, and Urbino respectively — in all, 4$. 
To many. of them Lassels, likewise, alludes in his c Voyage of 
Italy/ 

t By Francini Milton was addressed in an Italian ode, of 
which after much noisy and trite panegyric Dr. Johnson thinks 
the last stanza, implying f Come then, expressive Silence, muse 



112 milton's second defence. 

from my breast. From Florence I proceeded 
to Sienna, and thence to Rome. At the latter 
place I was detained nearly two months by it's 
antiquities, and the recollection of it's old re- 
nown ; and there received the most flattering 
attentions from Lucas Holstenius, and other 
learned and ingenious men. Thence I con- 
tinued my route to Naples ; and was there in- 
troduced by a certain hermit, with whom I had 
travelled from Rome, to Giovanni Battista 
Manso, Marchese di Villa,* a person of the 
highest birth and character, to whom Torquato 
Tasso the illustrious Italian poet addressed his 
c Dialogue on Friendship.' This nobleman re- 
ceived and treated me during my stay with the 
utmost friendship, conducted me himself through 
the city and over the viceroy's palace, and 
came more than once to visit me at my hotel : 
making me a serious apology on my departure, 

Ms praise/ natural and beautiful ; and by Carlo Dati lie was 
presented with an encomiastic inscription, in the tumid lapidary 
stile. In return, he couples those two illustrious Florentines 
together in his ' Damon/ iv. 136 — 138, where see Warton's 
note upon the latter, ib. p. 554. 

* This nobleman, likewise, addressed to Milton " a sorry 
distich" (Warton, ib. 411) commending him for every thing 
but his religion ; and was remunerated by a Latin poem, the 
' Mansus/ which must have raised a high opinion of English 
elegance and learning. 

Both this and the < Epitapkium Damonis,' as well as the 
c Ad Patrem,' are translated by Dr. Symmons (Life, pp. 153, 
185,602.) 



milton's second defence. lis 

for not having been able to pay me all the 
attentions at Naples which he was most anxious 
to have done, upon account of my not choosing 
to be a little more upon my guard # on subjects 
of religion. 

As I was now preparing to pass over into 
Sicily and Greece, the melancholy intelligence 
from England of the civil war recalled me: for 
I esteemed it dishonourable to be idly lingering 
in foreign countries, even for the improvement 
of my mind, when my fellow-citizens were 
struggling for their liberty at home. 

Intending to return to Rome, I was apprised 
by some merchants (on the authority of their 
correspondents) that the English Jesuits had 
laid a plot against me, if I revisited that city in 
my way home, for having expressed myself too 



* He had neglected the injunction, I pensieri stretti. Milton 
had, perhaps, given some offence by visiting Galileo (as he 
himself informs us, in his ' Areopagitica') then " a prisoner 
to the Inquisition for philosophical heresy." (Johnson.) This 
would render his principles, at once, notorious and obnoxious. 
His feelings with regard to the remaining part of his plan of 
travel, which from a sense of public duty he thought himself 
obliged to leave incomplete, are thus congenially imagined by 
his biographer : " His fancy was, no doubt, strongly excited by 
the approach of that time, when he was to tread the vales of 
Enna and of Tempe ,* the plains, on which Gelon and Miltiades 
had triumphed for the liberty of Greece over Carthage and 
Persia ; the favoured spots, where Theocritus had charmed the 
ear with his Doric melodies, and Euripides had drawn tears 
with his pathetic scene." (Symmcns, p. 162.) 

I 



114 BftLTCtt'S SECOND DEFENCE. 

freely upon religious topics. I had in fact made 
up my mind, not to introduce theological con- 
versation while abroad ; but, if questioned by 
others upon those subjects, at all hazards to 
avow my opinions. Notwithstanding this friendly 
caution, therefore, I returned to Rome ; made 
no mystery of myself to any one who inquired 
after me, and for almost two months more, in 
the very capital of the Pope, whenever 1 was 
attacked, vigorously defended the true Pro- 
testant faith. By God's good providence, how- 
ever, I again reached Florence in safety; and 
found in it a reception as cordial, as if it had 
been my native country. After passing there* 
highly to my satisfaction, a period equal to that 
of my first visit (with the exception of a few 
days, spent in an excursion to Lucca) I crossed 
the Apennines, and through Bologna and Fer- 
rara came to Venice. Having given a month 
to this city, and embarked the books which I 
had collected in Italy on board a vessel for 
England, I proceeded through Verona and 
Milan, over the Pennine Alps and by the Leman 
lake, to Geneva. 

The name of Geneva, associated in my mind 
with that of More my calumniator, induces me 
here again to call heaven to witness that in all 
those places, where so much licence is admitted, 
I preserved myself wholly pure from all stain 
and disgrace ; under a constant conviction that, 
though I might escape the observation of man, 

4 



Milton's second defence. 115 

I was certainly exposed to the eye of God. 
While I remained in that city, I was daily in 
company with the very learned Professor of 
Divinity, Giovanni Deodati.^ Thence, re- 
tracing my former road through France, after 
an absence of nearly fifteen months I reached 
England, about the time when Charles was 
beginning the second or c Bishops' War* against 
Scotland ;t in the very first engagement of 
which seeing his forces defeated, and perceiving 
all his subjects deservedly and most deeply dis- 
affected to him, under the compulsion of hard 
necessity and much against his inclination he 
shortly afterward called a parliament. 

Upon my arrival, looking around for some 
place to settle in, if that indeed in the then-dis- 
turbed and fluctuating state of things were pos- 
sible, I hired a house of considerable size for 
myself and my books in the capital, t and re- 



* This name will recall to the reader's recollection one of 
Milton's most cherished youthful friends, Charles Deodati, 
nephew of the learned theologian mentioned in the text, to 
whom he addressed two beautiful Latin Elegies. Of these 
the Second, in particular, of which my version has already 
been inserted in Dr. Symmons' often-quoted biography, may 
be referred to as a sample of elegant and highly classical Latin 
composition. 

t From the Scottish rebellion, of 1637, Milton dates the 
commencement of the civil war of England ; which however, 
more correctly speaking, should be assigned to 1642. 

% In St. Bride's Church- Yard. Of his successive abodes 
Johnson observes ; <f I cannot but remark a kind of respect, 

I 2 



116 milton's second defence. 

sumed with transport my long-suspended stu- 
dies ; cheerfully leaving the management of 
public affairs to God, and under him to those, 
whom the people had delegated for that pur- 
pose. The Parliament in the meanwhile acting 
with vigour, the pride of the Bishops fell. Every 
mouth opened upon them, as soon as liberty of 
Speech was first granted, some attacking the 



perhaps unconsciously, paid to this great man by his biographers. 
3Every house, in which he resided, is historically mentioned, as 
if it were an injury to neglect naming any place that he 
honoured by his presence." They were in Aldersgate Street, 
Barbican, High Holborn (the back part opening into Lincoln's 
Inn Fields) in 1647., Charing Cross and Scotland Yard upon 
his official appointment in 1649, Petty France (opening into 
St. James's Park) from 1652 to the Restoration; a friend's in 
Bartholomew's Close near West Smithfield for four months, 
Holborn near Red Lion Square, Jewin Street near Aldersgate 
Street in 1662, Millington's the auctioneer, and soon after- 
ward Artillery Walk adjoining Bunhill Fields till his death in 
1674. They were, most of them, ' garden-houses.' 

A similar compliment has been paid to Johnson by Boswell ; 
and the author of the above observation has himself been 
traced to 1. Exeter Street, off Catherine Street, Strand; 2. 
Greenwich; 3. Woodstock Street, near Hanover Square; 4. 
Castle Street, Cavendish Square ; 5. The Strand ; 6. Boswell 
Court; 7. Strand; 8. Bow Street; 9- Holborn; 10. Fetter 
Lane; 11. Holborn; 12. Gough Square; 13. Staple Inn; 
14. Gray's Inn; 15. Inner Temple Lane, 1; 16. Johnson's 
Court, 7; 17. Bolt Court, 8. 

The Rev. Perceval Stockdale has justly incurred some critical 
sneers for having thought it necessary, in his autobiography, to 
trace with precision the places, where his various pieces were 
respectively composed. 



milton's second defence. 11*7 

faults of individuals, and some the faulty con* 
stitution of the order itself; and pronouncing it 
highly unjust, that they alone should differ from 
the whole of the Reformed Churches abroad, 
and be governed upon any other principles than 
those of brethren, or rather those laid down in 
the Word of God. Roused by these remon* 
strants, and observing them treading the right 
way to liberty, as the general emancipation of 
mankind is best ushered in by a due correction 
of religious abuses, extending thence to such as 
are of a moral and political nature ; having 
likewise from my youth upward laboured above 
all things to acquire a knowledge of law divine 
and human, and reflecting that if I now deserted 
my country, her church, and her ministers in 
their distresses incurred for the sake of the 
gospel, I might never hereafter have it in my 
power to render her any service ; I determined, 
though I was then projecting some other works, 
to exert all my faculties and industry in their 
behalf. 

My first publication consisted of two books, 
addressed to a friend, c Of Reformation touch- 
ing Church-Government in England.' After 
this, when two Bishops* of high reputation 

* Bishop Hall, whose treatise bore the title of f An humble 
Remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament : ' and Arch- 
bishop Usher, who denominated his work c The Apostolical 
Institution of Episcopacy.' 

The Ministers mentioned in this passage were Stephen Mar* 



118 

stood forward to assert the rights of their order 
against some ministers of considerable distinc- 
tion, thinking that I could surely write upon 
subjects which I had studied from the pure love 
of truth and Christian duty, at least as well as 
those who were defending their own gainful and 
unjust hierarchy, I replied to one of them 
[Usher] in two pieces (entitled respectively, 
* Of Prelatical Episcopacy/ and ' The Reason 
of Church-Government urged against Prelacy') 
and to the other [Hall] by c Animadversions 
on the Remonstrant's Defence,' and soon after- 
ward by c An Apology for Smectymnuus ;' in 
which I supported the five ministers " lying at 



shall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young (Milton's quondam 
tutor, See Symmons, p. 50, not. m.) Matthew Newcomen, and 
William Spurstow ; five presbyterian divines, who wrote con- 
junctively a pamphlet called, by an appellation formed from the 
initial letters of their names, * Smectymnuus/ This drew from 
Bishop Hall, the ilium of the text, ' A Defence of the Remon- 
strance ;" and it was in angry opposition to this latter work, not 
to the Remonstrance itself, that Milton published his e Animad- 
versions,' &c. : a tract, throughout which te there prevails a 
grim smile, sharpening and aggravating the offence." 

The Translator does not think it necessary, in this place, to 
encounter his author's reasonings upon the subject. 

Bishop Hall was denominated * the Christian Seneca/ He 
wrote f Episcopacy by Divine Right,' c Meditations,' and six 
books of Satires under the Title of f Virgidemiarum? which 
rank high in merit (three of them * toothless/ and three ex- 
tremely 'biting') beside numerous other works. Jt may be 
added, to his credit, that he very judiciously opposed the prac- 
tice of burying in churches. 



milton's second defence. 119 

the mercy of his coy and flurting stile ;" and, 
thenceforward, upon every rejoinder of theirs I 
took up the pen. 

The Bishops having at length sunk under the 
universal hostility, and left me disengaged in 
that quarter, I turned my thoughts into a differ- 
ent direction ; anxious as I exclusively was to 
advance the interests of true substantial liberty, 
which is to be sought not abroad but at home, 
and to be attained not by war and bloodshed, 
but by right principles and correct conduct. 
Perceiving then that there were three kinds of 
liberty, all essential to the comfort of human 
life, viz. Religious, Domestic or Private, and 
Political ; and having already written upon the 
first, while the civil magistrate (I observed) was 
strenuously exerting himself in promoting the 
last, I undertook to examine the second, as the 
only remaining branch which required discus- 
sion. This, too, appearing to divide itself into 
three parts ; the harmony of the wedded state, 
the proper education of children, and the un- 
disturbed privilege of pursuing philosophical in- 
quiries — 1 explained my opinions, not only on 
the contracting, but also (if circumstances ren- 
dered it necessary) the dissolving of marriage ; 
opinions formed upon the divine law, which 
Christ did not at any time supersede, certainly 
not by substituting another more grievous 
than the whole Mosaic code in it's place. 
As to what was to be understood likewise by 



120 

the special exception of fornication, I delivered 
both my own judgement and that of others ; 
which our illustrious Selden in his c Hebrew- 
Wife/ a treatise of greater length published 
about two years afterward, fully confirmed. 
Vainly, indeed, does he brag of liberty in pub- 
lic, who is held in a state of unmanly bondage 
by an inferior in his own house. Upon this 
subject therefore I published some tracts, as 
thinking them peculiarly adapted to a period, 
when man and wife were often seen rancorously 
espousing different sides; the first with his chil- 
dren at home, and the latter breathing death 
and destruction against her husband in the 
enemy's camp. 

I next wrote a brief c Tractate on Educa- 
tion'* in a small volume, large enough how- 
ever, in my judgement, for such as bestowed 
due diligence upon the subject — a subject most 
powerfully calculated to imbue the human mind 
with virtue, the true source of genuine inward 
freedom, and to secure the welfare and the 
duration of states. 

Finally, I composed the < Areopagitica, or 
A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Print- 
ing ;\ to the end that the distinguishing between 
truth and falsehood, and deciding what should 
be published and what not, might no longer re- 

* This was addressed, in the form of a letter, to the learned 
and patriotic ' Master Samuel Hartlib ; ' to whom Sir William 
Petty, afterward, inscribed one of his first works. 






milton's second defence. 121 

main in the breasts of a few (and those, gene- 
rally, men of little learning or judgement) who 
were appointed Licensers of Books, and de- 
prived almost all such, as classed in intellect 
above the vulgar* of both the power and the 
will to give their studies to the world, f 

Political liberty, the last division of the three, 
I had not touched upon, as being sufficiently 
guarded by the civil power : neither did I write 

* An account of this Tract, and copious extracts from it, are 
given by Dr. Symmons, pp. 259 — 267- One of them, for it's 
uncommon splendor, I cannot so far deny myself as to withhold 
from the reader. After referring to the sprightly vigour of a 
people " casting off the old and wrinkled skin of corruption, 
waxing young again, entering the glorious ways of truth and 
prosperous virtue, and destined to become great and honourable 
in these latter days " — " Me thinks I see in my mind," exclaims 
this enthusiastic advocate of freedom in a strong burst of elo- 
quence, " a noble and puissant nation rousing herself, like the 
strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks : me- 
thinks I see her, as an eagle, muing her mighty youth, and 
kindled her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam ; purging 
and unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of 
heavenly radiance, while the whole noise of timorous and flock- 
ing birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about 
amazed at what she means ;" &c. 

" Though all the winds of doctrine (he, elsewhere, observes) 
were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, 
we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her 
strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple : Who ever knew 
Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter ? " 

Again : " I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, 
unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her 
adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal gar- 
land is to be run for— not without dust and heat." 



122 milton's second defence. 

a single syllable on the Royal Prerogative, till 
the King had been proclaimed an enemy by the 
Parliament, and conquered, and tried, and con- 
demned to death. Then however at last, when 
some Presbyterian ministers, who had before 
been most vehement against Charles, resenting 
now the popularity and parliamentary ascen- 
dency of the Independents, began to remon- 
strate against the sentence passed upon the 
King (provoked, in fact, not that the thing was 
done, but that it had not been done by them- 
selves) and, with a view of raising commotions, 
turbulently ventured to affirm that the Protest- 
ant doctrine and all the Reformed Churches 
strongly reprobated it's severity ; thinking that 
such an open falsehood should be as openly 
contradicted, I came forward to show in the 
abstract, without any specific reference even 
then to Charles, by a number of testimonies 
from eminent divines, how it was generally 
lawful to treat tyrants ; and chastised, almost 
with the freedom of a public discourse, the 
egregious ignorance or impudence of those, who 
had recently affected better things.* This work 

* This Tract was entitled, ' The Tenure of Kings and 
Magistrates, proving that it is lawful, and hath been held so 
through all ages, for any who have the power, to call to account 
a tyrant or wicked king ; and after due conviction, to depose 
and put him to death, if the ordinary magistrate have neglected 
or denied to do it.' 

Of Milton's bitterness against Presbyterianism, we have 



milton's second defence. 123 

did not make it's appearance till after the King's 
death, and was adapted rather to " compose the 
minds of the people," than to suggest any 
decision respecting Charles ; a decision, which 
belonged to the magistrate, not to me, and 
which had already indeed been carried into 
effect. 

Such were my alternate labours, in my own 
house, for the Church and for the Common- 
wealth : and for these I received nothing from 
either party, except personal safety, in return. 
To the works themselves, however, I certainly 
owe many gratifying recollections, a good name 
among the good, and this honourable privilege 
of relating their history. While others without 
any merit were engrossing emoluments and 
honours, no one ever saw me soliciting any 
thing either personally or by my friends, with a, 
petitioning eye rivetted on the doors of the 
parliament-house, or a foot glued to the threshold 
of inferior assemblies. On the other hand, I 
usually kept at home, and supported almost ex- 
cessive imposts and an establishment — of the 
most frugal description, in truth — by my own 

abundant proofs in his Lycidas, vv. 114 (see the latter part of 
Warton's note)— 129, and Sonnet xvi. ; where that commen- 
tator informs us, " by hireling wolves he means the Pres- 
byterian clergy, who possessed the revenues of the parochial 
benefices on the old constitution, and whose conformity he 
supposes to be founded altogether on motives of emolument." 
The whole note is worth reading. 



124 

income, which yet was often greatly reduced by 
these civil disturbances. 

This affair finished, and concluding that I 
should thenceforth have abundance of leisure, I 
sat down to compose, as well as I might be 
able, a regular History of the nation from it's 
remotest origin to the present times \ and had 
already finished four books,* when I was most 
unexpectedly summoned by the Council of 
State, as it is called, then first constituted by 
the authority of Parliament (the realm having 
been modelled into the form of a Common- 
wealth) and engaged in their service, particu- 
larly in what related to Foreign Affairs. t 

Soon afterward appeared a publication, as- 
cribed to the late King, and written with a most 
invidious design against the Parliament ; to 
which I was appointed to draw up a reply. % 



* These four books, of c the History of England/ conduct 
the narrative to the Union of the Heptarchy under Egbert; 
and the last two, written in his next pause from controversial 
asperity, when he had crushed the interfering insolence of 
More, bring it no lower than to the battle of Hastings. Some 
of it's most spirited and brilliant passages were rejected by the 
barbarian caprice of the licenser, previously to it's publication 
in 1670. 

f As Latin Secretary, or according to the full superscription 
of Marvell's letter to him, « Secretary for the Foreign Affairs.* 

% After what Dr. Symmons has briefly stated in his c Life of 
Milton,' and Laing in his ' History of Scotland,' (III. 406 — 
408, and Not. xiv. 530 — 544.) it may, without much presump- 
tion, be concluded that " no one will henceforward venture to 



milton's second defence. 125 

Accordingly, I encountered the c Icon I with 
the ^ Iconoclast es ; 9 not, as is alleged by my 
enemies, ' insulting the royal memory/ but 
preferring the majesty of truth to his majesty 
King Charles. Foreseeing, indeed, that such 
a calumny would be in every slanderer's mouth* 
both in the exordium and wherever else it was 
in my power I endeavoured to obviate the im- 
putation. Upon this, Saumaise stepped forth ; 
to whom they were so far from being c long 
(as More affirms) in providing an answer,' that 
I, who happened also to be then present, was 
instantly named to that employment by every 
one in Council. 

Thus far, More, have I given an account of 
myself, in order to stop your mouth and con- 
fute your falsehoods ; chiefly with a view to 
the information of those respectable characters, 
who have had no other opportunity of knowing 
c who and what I am.' Curb then, More, to ex- 
press myself indelicately,* curb that indecent 
tongue of yours. Silence, I say : for the more 
you rail at me, the more you make it necessary 
for me to enter into my own vindication ; 
whence arises nothing but a clearer detection 



defend the authority of the Icon" But, as Mr. L. observes,, 
" if ever a literary imposture were excusable, it was undoubt- 
edly Gauden's, and had it appeared a week sooner, it might 
have preserved the King." 
* 4>i^<y^}jT<, Obmutesce. . 



126 milton's second defence. 

of your calumnies, and a more satisfactory ex- 
hibition of my integrity. 

I had censured Saumaise for intruding him- 
self, a stranger and a foreigner, into the affairs 
of the English people. To this you pertly 
reply, that those, who are least concerned with 
England, are most concerned to undertake the De- 
fence in question. And why ? Because, forsooth, 
the English may he supposed to act more under 
the influence of a spirit of party ; whereas the 
French, it is probable, will have respect to mea- 
sures, and not to men! To this I rejoin as before, 
that no distant foreigner, like yourself, would 
think of plunging himself without a bribe into 
the affairs of another people, especially when 
those affairs were in a state of commotion. I 
have already proved, that Saumaise was hired 
to the job : that you were aspiring to a pro- 
fessor's chair through the interest of Saumaise 
and the Orange-faction, is equally notorious ; 
and then, still more to your disgrace, you defame 
Parliament, and debauch Pontia. Your reason 
too, for thinking c foreigners most concerned 
to undertake this Defence/ is perfectly ridicu- 
lous : for, admitting the English to be c under 
the influence of a spirit of party' — what do you 
do, who' from them derive all your information, 
but simply transfer their passions to yourselves ? 
So that, if they may not be trusted in their own 
cause, still fewer claims to confidence rest with 
you ; who apprehend, or at least admit, nothing 



milton's second defence. 12? 

relative to that cause, except what you have 
collected from persons, upon your own state- 
ment scarcely worthy of credit. 

Here again, you launch out into the praises of 
the 'great' Saumaise; c great/ indeed, in your 
estimation, when you made him a kind of pimp 
to his own maid ? You praise him, however : so 
did he not you. On the contrary, upon his 
death-bed he expressed his detestation of you, 
and often and severely reproached himself for 
not having believed Spanheim, that most re- 
spectable divine, when he informed him what a 
reprobate you were. 

Now, in a fit of phrensy, you relinquish all 
argument ; for Saumaise, long ago, exhausted the 
argumentative part. You claim only the office 
of bellowing, and foaming at the mouth ; and 
yet even here you vail the bonnet to Saumaise, 
not for his virulence of language, hut because 
he is — Saumaise ! Such are the happy conceits, 
which we owe to you mooring by the side of 
Pontia! Hence, I say, has your c cry* acquired 
it's billing and cooing tone : and hence, too, it's 
tone of menace, when you exclaim ; Ye shall 
feel, filthy beasts, the force of our literary 
weapons! Shall we feel you, you minion of 
maids and of wives -, or your weapon, which is 
only formidable to maids, and which at the very 
sight of a pillory or a ducking-stool you would 
think yourself particularly lucky to carry off in 
safety. / am not (you say) w empty -headed, as 



128 Milton's second defence. 

to obtrude myself upon a department undertaken 
by Saumaise : a department, in fact, which 
without 5 an empty head' he never would have 
undertaken ; so that in empty-headedness you 
rate yourself below c the great Saumaise/ 

But, as even the unlearned ought to lift up 
6 the Cry of the Royal Blood to heaven' you 
venture to assert your privilege. c Cry' then, 
bawl, vociferate ; pursue your hypocrisies : 
affect the sanctity of a devotee-, and lead the 
life of a debauchee. The God of vengeance, 
trust me, whom you so often invoke, will at last 
arise ; and arise to your confusion, you imp of 
the devil, you abominable disgrace and pest of 
the Reformed Church. 

■ In answer to the numerous charges of scur- 
rility, adduced against Saumaise, you say; So- 
parricides, the basest of monsters, ought to be 
dealt with. Thank you for supplying us with 
weapons, and accommodating us at once with a 
hint how they ought to be used against you and 
such traitors as you, and with an apology for 
such use of them. 

Since, then, reason is out of the question (for 
that you do not venture upon, pretending that 
c the argument on the subject of the Royal Pre- 
rogative has been exhausted by Saumaise ') you 
unreasonably turn from your frantic strain of 
invective to some pitiful stories, an appropriate 
sequel to the Very,' which you have set up 
from the beginning; partly re-cast from Sau- 



milton's second defence. 129 

Biaise, and partly transcribed and interpolated 
from that most scrubby anonymous scribbler,* 
who left not only his country, but his name be- 
hind him! To these, to the principal parts of 
them at least, I have already so replied either in 
the c Iconoclastes,' or in my answers to Saumaise, 
that short of the bulk of a complete history I 
can take no farther notice of them. Must I 
always be compelled to run the same dull 
round, and to repeat over and over again, what 
I have so often stated before, at every black- 
guard's hissing ? No. I will not so mis-employ 
either my labour, or my leisure. Should any 
one give credit to the hired howling and studied 
tears of this venal hypocrite, and to those feeble 
declamations of his, adulterated and bastardised 
by his intrigue with a servant girl and fit twins 
of his little spurious Morell, I have no kind of 
objection to it ; for our party can have nothing 
to fear from such a rash and credulous fool. I 
shall just, however, touch slightly upon a few 
heads, as a sample of the rest, in order to show 
briefly the character of both the fellow and his 
work. 

After babbling a great deal of exotic absur- 
dity about combining the House of Commons 
and the House of Peers into one body (a propo- 
sition, to which no man in his senses would 
ever object) in order to advance from equality 

K 



ISO milton's second defence* 

in the State to equality in the Church— for the 
order of Bishops ivas then in existence— if this 
he not sheer Anabaptism (he observes) I have 
nothing farther to say. Who could have ex- 
pected a sentence like this from a divine, and a 
minister of the Gallican Church ? He who, ' if 
this be not sheer Anabaptism, has nothing far- 
ther to say/ can hardly be able to say a whit 
more distinctly what Baptism is. If we would 
call things by their proper names, equality in 
the State is not Anabaptism, but Democracy, a 
far older thing ; and in the Church, particularly 
an Established Church, is the Apostolic dis- 
cipline. But c the order of Bishops was then in 
existence.' So it w r as too at Geneva, when that 
state from a religious motive expelled it's 
Bishop, who was likewise it's legitimate princeo 
If this was their glory, why should it be our 
disgrace? I can see, More, through your ob- 
ject. You are revenging yourself upon the 
Genevese, whose vote left it problematical whe- 
ther you were ignominiously sent off, or actu- 
ally expelled from that church. It is obvious 
therefore that you, as well as your boasted 
Saumaise, have apostatised from this evangelical 
system of church-discipline, and (were the thing 
of sufficient moment to be noted) have gone 
over to the Bishops. 

The commonwealth then* (you say) adopted 

* 1641— 164£, 




milton's second defence. 131 

our clerical equality ; a full proof, thai the same 
spirit was at that time in high vigour, which 
eight years of terward put a finishing hand to the 
business by the impious parricide of the King. 
Thus the same spirit, it seems, presided in the 
constitution of your ministers, and in parri- 
cide ! Go on; I entreat you, as you have 
begun, to bellow out the ravings of apostasy. 

They could not scrape together (you affirm) 
more than three petitions for the King's execu- 
tion. This is notoriously, and to my own know- 
ledge completely, false. Our historians expressly 
record that not only * three petitions' of this 
kind, but a great many from different counties 
and parts of the army were presented within 
little more than a month, and three in one day ! 
You see, then, with how much deliberation the 
parliament proceeded in this matter, when the 
people, from a suspicion of their excessive 
lenity, thought it necessary to spur them for- 
ward by so many entreaties. And how many 
thousands, think you, were there of the same 
sentiments, who might deem it either impor- 
tunate or superfluous to press parliament upon 
a subject, at that moment under it's serious 
discussion ; of which number I was one, and 
yet my wish on the occasion is sufficiently ob- 
vious! And what, if all had been awed into 
silence by the importance of the affair ! Must 
the parliament therefore have suspended it's 
decision, in expectation that the people by some 

k 2 



132 milton's second defence. 

intimation of their will would regulate the issue 
of such an interesting inquiry ? What, indeed, 
but an absolute surrender of our brave deliver- 
ers to the tyrant would have been the conse- 
quence ; had the Supreme Council of the State, 
delegated by the people at large for the express 
purpose of controlling the wanton despotism of 
the King, after subduing his hostile fury in the 
field, thought it necessary on the subject of his 
execution to recur to the popular suffrages, 
which might perhaps have pronounced his ac- 
quittal ? Or where would be an end of refer- 
ences backward and forward, should those who 
have received the power of deciding upon 
affairs of the greatest moment, particularly such 
as exceed the comprehension of the lower 
classes, be constrained to refer back, I do not 
say to the people (for, so constituted, they are 
themselves the people) but to the mob, those 
things which from a consciousness of it's in- 
capacity the mob had previously referred to 
them ? What firm anchorage could there be, in 
an eddy like this ? What stability among such a 
heap of petitions, subscribed by nobody knows 
whom ? What security amidst such fluctuations ? 
What would have been the result, had they pe- 
titioned for the restoration of Charles ; which 
some disaffected persons indeed did, not with 
entreaties but with threats : to the full as absurd 
and as malignant in their pity, as in their re- 
sentment? Was any attention due to characters 



milton's second defence* 133 

bf this description, who crowding from their 
different milages, and besetting (as you say) in 
vast numbers the doors of the parliament-house, 
to insist upon a conference with the King, were 
many of them slain by the soldiery under the 
direction of the Commons ? The simple fact is ; 
some peasants out of Surrey, either by the 
seditious impulse of others as mere rustics, or 
from their own turbulent dispositions, paraded 
drunk through the city with their petition, 
much more like a set of wassailers than of pe- 
titioners : they afterward fiercely beset in a 
body the doors of the parliament-house, drove 
the sentinels from their posts, and killed one of 
them at the very entrance, before any thing had 
been either said or done to provoke them. 
They were then, however, attacked and com- 
pelled to retire ; yet with only the loss of two 
or three of their crew, and those with British 
spirits rather than British spirit in their 
mouths.* 

You every where admit, that the party of 
the Independents was superior to the other, not in 
number, but in judgement and military talent. 
Hence, I contend, they amply deserved their 
ascendency ; for nothing is more natural, or 
equitable, or indeed more generally expedient 

* One can hardly help feeling a little surprise, that some jeu 
de mot founded upon the different meanings of Liber did not 
occur to our punning controversialist ! 



134 milton's second defence. 

for society, than that the less should be sub- 
ordinate to the greater : I speak not of greater 
or less, as estimated by numbers, but by 6 judge- 
ment and talent/ The prudent, the expe- 
rienced, the active, and the good — these, how- 
ever few in numbers, constitute ever in my 
opinion, as to the weight and value of their 
suffrages;, the majority. 

You here and there say a great deal about 
Cromwell, which shall be examined below : to 
your other observations I have already replied, 
in my * Answer to Saumaise.' 

You venture also upon the King's trial, though 
it had already been handled, most miserably in- 
deed, in the way of declamation, by your great 
rhetorician. The peers (you observe) that is, 
the courtiers chiefly and ministers of state, 
were averse from bringing the King to his 
trial. This, as I have shown in a former work, 
was a matter of very little consequence. The 
?iames of the regular Judges were next erased, 
as having pronounced such trial illegal: What 
they then pronounced, I know not ; but I know 
what they now approve and defend. Besides, 
it is no new thing, however disreputable, that 
Judges should be cowards. A president there- 
fore of suitable qualifications, a lozv-bom insolent 
blockhead, is placed over this base and profligate 
court. And can you, stained with so many 
crimes and vices — nay, an absolute blot, an en- 
tire lump of guilt — can you have become sq 



milton's second defence. 135 

callous in your intellect and senses, if indeed 
your intellect be not one complete callus, as 
to dare (atheist, and profaner of every thing 
sacred, as you are) to blaspheme God, and 
calumniate every good man ? What is this to 
be, but a genuine Iscariot, a very devil himself I 
Though your censure however is the highest 
commendation, yet will I not be wanting to my 
most excellent and ever highly-valued friend, 
against whom you thus bark ; but defend him 
from those unprincipled assaults of vagabonds 
and knaves,* to which but for his patriotism he 
would never have been exposed. 

John Bradshaw (a name consecrated by 
Liberty, in every country where her power is ac- 
knowledged, to immortal renown) is descended, 
as it is generally known, of a noble family. 
Hence he devoted the early part of his life to 
the study of the laws of his country ; and then 
becoming a profound lawyer, a most eloquent 
advocate, and an inflexible asserter of freedom 
and the rights of the people, he both engaged 
in the more important affairs of the state, 
and frequently discharged with unimpeachable 

* Mororum. For an account of e the resolute but mistaken 
republicanism of Bradshaw,' and an Inscription to his memory, 
see Dr. S. pp. 309 — 316. The details of the trial over which 
he presided, and it's issue, are well recorded by Laing, iii. 398° 
The Stuartising Hume, indeed (vii. 139, 8vo. Ed.) and Lord 
Clarendon (iii. 245, &c. 8vo. Ed.) give us a very different 
picture of his conduct 






136 milton's second defence. 

integrity the duties of a judge. When at 
length he was solicited by the parliament to 
preside at the trial of the King, he did not 
shrink from this most perilous commission : for 
to the service of the law he had brought a 
liberal disposition, a lofty spirit, and sincere 
and unoffending manners ; and, thus qualified, 
he supported and satisfied that great and un- 
precedentedly-fearful office, exposed to the 
threats and daggers of innumerable assassins, 
with so much firmness, so much weight of 
manner, and such presence and dignity of mind, 
that he seemed to have been formed and ap- 
pointed expressly by the Deity himself for the 
performance of 4;his very deed, which the Divine 
Providence had of old decreed to be accom- 
plished in this nation : and so far has he sur- 
passed the glory of all tyrannicides, as it is 
more humane, more just, and more noble to 
try a tyrant, than without trial to put him to 
death. Though in general neither gloomy nor 
severe, but gentle and placid, he yet sustains 
with unfaltering dignity the character, which he 
has borne ; and uniformly consistent with him- 
self, appears like a consul, from whom the 
fasces are not to depart with the year : * so that 
not on the tribunal alone, but throughout his 
whole life, you would regard him as sitting in 

* Consutyue non unius anni. 

(Hor. Od. IV. ix. 39.) 



milton's second defence. 137 

judgement upon kings. Unwearied beyond all 
€thers, and singly equal to a multitude, in his 
labours for the public ; in domestic life, to the 
utmost stretch of his power, he is hospitable 
and splendid: amidst all the vicissitudes of 
fortunes a most faithful and steadfast friend ; 
and instant and eager to acknowledge merit, 
wherever it is discovered, as well as most muni- 
ficent to reward it. The pious, the learned, the 
eminent in every walk of genius, the soldier 
and the hero, are either relieved by his wealth, 
if in distress ; or, if otherwise, are cherished by 
his kind attentions and regard. Delighted to 
dwell on the praises of others, he studiously 
suppresses his own : and so great is his placa- 
bility, that it is readily extended (as the expe- 
rience of numbers has ascertained) to any of 
the public enemies, who from a sense of their 
errors have reverted to reason. If the cause of 
the oppressed is openly to be asserted, if the in- 
fluence or power of the mighty is to be con- 
trolled, if the public ingratitude toward any 
meritorious individual is to be arraigned, in this 
great man will no deficiency of eloquence or of 
perseverance be found : in him the client will 
possess an advocate and a friend, by his intre- 
pidity and his oratory suited to all his wants ; 
one, whom no threats can divert from the 
straight path, whom neither intimidation nor 
bribes can bend from the uprightness of duty, 



138 milton's second defence. 

or for an instant deject from the conscious firm- 
ness of his countenance and the determined 
attitude of his mind. 

These are the virtues, which render him de- 
servedly dear to most, and to his greatest ene- 
mies far from an object of contempt ; and these 
will perpetuate to foreign nations and to future 
ages the fame of his great civil exertions, when 
you, More, and such as you shall have burst 
with envy at his renown. But to proceed. 

The King is condemned to death. Every 
pulpit in London thunders against this frantic 
decision. This wooden thunder of yours is not 
very alarming. We have no fear of those Sal- 
moneuses, who will at one time or other dearly 
pay for their fictitious and usurped bolts. 
Respectable and honest gentlemen, in truth ! 
who not long before from the very same pulpits 
thundered as loudly against Pluralists and Non- 
residents ; and presently, when they had pil- 
laged the Prelates (after scaring them away by 
their rumbling) of three or four benefices a- 
piece, and were of course become Non-Resi- 
dents themselves, incurred the identical crime 
against which they had been hurling their bolt, 
and were each struck by his own thunder. And 
of all this they are not yet ashamed ! They are, 
at present, engrossed in establishing their claim 
to tithes ; and if such be indeed their rage for 
them, I think they ought themselves to be 



milton's second defence. 139 

tithed ; and to have not only the tithe-sheaf, 
but the tithe-wave,* for their portion. These 
men at first recommended taking up arms 
against the King, as a nefarious public enemy ; 
and then, when he was captured, and convicted 
of the carnage and bloodshed which they them- 
selves had so often laid to his charge, they 
wished him to be spared — as a King! Thus 
perched in their pulpits, like a set of auctioneers, 
they puff off what articles and trumpery they 
choose upon the populace ; and, what is much 
worse, after they have so puffed them off, when- 
ever they choose, they reclaim them. 

But the Scots demanded, that the King should 
be given up to them again, and allege the pro- 
mises made to them by the parliament at the 
time of his delivery. That no such * promises * 
were at that time c made,' I can prove ; and 
most disgraceful, indeed, would it have been to 
recover the King only conditionally from a 
horde of Scottish mercenaries. Besides, the 
very reply of the parliament to their represen- 
tations, March 15, 1647, most distinctly affirms 

* Fructus and Jluctus are here made to jingle in the original. 
Ovid somewhere mentions, as the largest, the wave posterior 
nono undecimoque prior. On the conduct of the ' Pluralists 
and Non-residents' above mentioned, we have two Notes by 
Warton, Lycid. 114, and Sonn. xvi. 14. (Min. Poem.) The- 
valuable ' Memoirs of the Life of Col. Hutchinson,' lately 
published, abound with severe and deserved invectives upon the 
same subject. See II. 94, 160, &c. 



I4Q milton's second defence. 

that no ' promise was made,' as to the mode of 
treating the King. They justly deemed it be- 
neath them, to stipulate for their rights with the 
Scots upon any such condition. 

They certainly however demanded, that the 
King should be given up to them again. Tender 
souls ! They were quite broken-hearted ; and 
could not any longer support the longing for 
their King 1 Yet these very men at the beginning 
of our British disturbances had more than once, 
after a full parliamentary discussion, unani- 
mously determined that a King might be 
cashiered* on three particular grounds, viz. for 
tyranny, alienation of the royal domains, and 
abdication; and about the year 1645, in a par- 
liament held at Perth, had proposed the ques- 
tion ; c Whether a King, notoriously disaffected 
to the Saints, might not be excommunicated ?' 
But, pending the inquiry, Montrose with his 
troops advanced to that city, and broke up the 
convention. These very men too, in one of 
their answers to General Cromwell in 1650, 
confess that c the King was justly punished ; 
though the forms of procedure against him, on 
account of their non-participation in the busi- 
ness, were defective.' The deed then, without 
them horrible, would with them have been 



* See Burke's ' Reflexions on the French Revolution,' where 
misconduct is the sweeping term assigned as the alleged ground 
for cashiering a sovereign. 



mtlton's second DEFENCE. 142 

honourable ! On their nod, right and wrong de- 
pended ! They were to define, for us, what was 
just and unjust ! And what milder sentence 
would they themselves, I pray, have pronounced, 
had c the King been given up to them again ? * 
But the first answer which the Scottish Co?n~ 
missioners received from the English parliament 
was, that c they would not consent to change the 
form of the English government ;' whereas they 
subsequently replied that, ' though they had then 
refused, they were now willing to do it, in order 
to preserve the state from ruin' And they re- 
plied rightly. What do you infer hence ? These 
quirks (you say) are fatal to all compacts, to all. 
intercourse, and even to common sense itself J* 
Yes, to yours they are fatal, as you don't seem 
to know the distinction between free promises 
and positive engagements. The English at first 
stated freely in their answer to the Scots, who 
had no claim upon them for explanation on the 
subject, what they had at that time determined 
with regard to the future constitution of the 
state. The ' preservation of that state from 
ruin' appeared to them, afterwards, to demand 
a different policy, if they meant to fulfil their 
engagement and oath to the people, of whom 
they were the representatives. Which, think 
you, was the holier bond of obligation ; the free 
answer at first given to the Scottish Commis- 
sioners upon the future constitution of the 
state, or the positive engagement and oath 



142 MILTON^ SECOND DEFENCE. 

pledged to their own countrymen for it's pre- 
servation ? But that parliaments or senates 
may vary their councils from motives of expe- 
diency, since my affirmation you consider as 
f anabaptistical* and abominable, I had rather 
you should learn from Cicero's Oration for 
Plancius : " We ought all to consider ourselves 
as standing by a kind of great state-wheel ; and 
as it turns round, to select that position, where 
we may most effectually contribute to the com- 
mon safety." And again, a little below : " For 
I do not reckon it the part of a turn-coat, to 
direct one's opinion, like a ship on her way, 
with reference to existing emergencies. The 
result of my learning, observation, and study, 
and what history has recorded of the wisest and 
greatest men in both this and foreign countries, 
is — that the same opinions have not at all times 
been stubbornly maintained by the same indi- 
viduals ; but have been regulated and adapted to 
the situation of public affairs, the exigencies of 
the times, and the general harmony of the state. 5 * 
So says Tully — Hortensius* indeed, I know, is 
your favourite — and so say the ages most emi- 
nent for civil wisdom, which the * Anabaptists' 
in my opinion do wisely to follow. How many 
judicious measures crowd upon my memory, 
which are now condemned as ' anabaptistical 5 

* In the name Hortensia occurs another allusion to the often- 
quoted garden -intrigue. 



milton's second defence. 143 

by these petty priests and their Saumaise; a 
man, who estimated by things, not words, is a 
complete ignoramus ? 

Neither were their High Mightinesses, the 
States General of Holland (you observe) a whit 
more successful in the strenuous efforts, which 
they made through their envoys, by entreaties 
and the offer of a ransom, to save Charles* 
" holy head!" To seek thus to set a price upon 
justice, was in effect to clinch the King's fate. 
They have now learned, by experience, that we 
are not all c shopkeepers ; ,# that the English 
parliament is not quite so venal, as they ex- 
pected. 

With regard to this famous trial — to identify 
Charles (you remark) as much as possible in 
suffering with Christ, the soldiery heap mockeries 
upon him. Christ was much more ' identified ' 
with malefactors c in suffering/ than Charles 
with Christ ; and many circumstances of the 
kind you refer to were rumoured by such as, in 
their anxiety to heighten the odium of the mea- 
sure, did not scruple to fabricate or circulate 
any untruth. Allowing, however, that the com- 
mon soldiers did behave themselves with some 
small degree of insolence, this surely is not 



* This old reproach was recently revived by our implacable 
enemy, Buonaparte, who has endeavoured to stigmatise us as a 
nation boutiquiere — Qu. ? for having attempted, as a punster 
observed, to effect in France a Cowwter*revolution? 



144 milton's second defence. 

necessarily to be imputed to the cause, in which 
they were engaged. 

But that any one was murthered at the feet 
of the King, on his way to the courts as he was 
beseeching God. to have mercy upon his Sove- 
reign, I never before heard myself, nor have I 
ever yet been able to find any one that had. 
Nay, I got a friend to question the very officer, 
who was on guard during the whole trial and 
seldom for a moment quitted the King's side, 
upon this subject ; and he uniformly asserted, 
that he never heard this report before, and 
knew it indeed himself to be most certainly false. 
Hence we may ascertain the degree of credit 
due to the rest of your stories : for you will 
appear little more entitled to belief in concili- 
ating regard, and even (were it feasible) adora- 
tion to Charles after his death, than in throwing 
upon us, most unjustly, every possible degree of 
detestation. 

The King (you say ) was heard upon the fatal 
scaffold, repeating to the Bishop of London* 

* Juxon. It is somewhat singular that, in the minute detail 
given by Sir Thomas Herbert, in his * Memoirs of the two last 
years of the Reign of Charles I.' he takes no notice of these 
emphatical words. From him we are not surprised to learn 
that, as the crowd prayed for the King in passing, the soldiers 
» did not rebuke any of them, by their silence and dejected 
faces seeming afflicted rather than insulting ;" though it contra- 
dicts so decisively the royalist assertion in the text. But, after 
his account of the interment at Windsor, so lately ascertained 
to be true, the Girdle or circumscription of capital letters in 



milton's second defence* 145 

" Remember, Remember." Hence, forsooth, his 
judges were anxious to know, what this last re* 
peated word meant ! The Bishop, according to 
your account, is summoned, and commanded to 
explain the mysterious injunction of this double 
€ Remember' He at first, artful dissembler ! pur- 
posely affected some nice scruples, and refused 
to disclose the profound secret. On being 
more strongly urged, however, he was brought 
with extreme reluctance and every appearance 
of intimidation to relate what, if true, he must 
have wished divulged at any price, and stated as 
follows : " The King commanded me, if I should 
ever accomplish an interview with his son, to 
injoin him (as the last direction of his dying 
father) when restored to his crown and pozver, to 
pardon you his murthcrers. This is what he bade 
me, again and again, c remember. 9 " O King, 
shall I say, or Bishop more holy ; * who could so 
easily be induced to disclose the whispered 
secret, thus mysteriously confided to his keeping 

lead put about the coffin, and the memorable circumstance that, 
notwithstanding " the sky was serene and clear when the body 
was brought out, by that time they came to the West end of 
the Royal Chapel, the black velvet pall was all white {the 
colour of innocence) being thick covered over with snow!" 
we may pardonably wonder a little at the story of the substi- 
tution of his corpse for that of Oliver Cromwell, &c. (See 
Selection from Harl. Misc. 392.) Hume records the use of 
" the simple word, remember," without stating his authority. 

* This word furnishes a lucky equivoque for the pietatU et 
rimarum plenus. 

I- 



146 MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 

Upon the scaffold ! But, O mirror of secresy ! 
Charles had long since given his son the same 
injunction, along with many others, in his c Icon 
Basilike; 9 a work, obviously written on purpose 
to circulate shortly afterward with all diligence 
this mighty mystery (whether we wished it, or 
not) as ostentatiously, as it had before been 
suppressed. But I see clearly, that you are 
determined to impose upon the un-informed a 
perfect Charles, if not this very Stuart in ques- 
tion, one of some hyperborean* and fabulous 
breed, varnished over with a profusion of gaudy 
colours. You have so prettily vamped up this 
little story into a kind of operatic farce, inter- 
spersed here and there with charming dialogue 
and pathetic sentiment, in imitation of some 
affected moralist or other, to captivate the popu- 
lar ear. Admitting, however, that the Bishop 
was perhaps slightly questioned by one or two 
of the Commissioners upon this subject, I do 
not find that he was expressly c summoned* on 
the occasion either by the Council or the Com- 
mission of Judges, as if they had all been 
anxious or deeply interested in the inquiry. 
But, granting even all you wish — that Charles 
gave this last injunction to the Bishop upon the 
scaffold, to carry to his son, relative to c the 
pardoning of his murtherers* — what was there 
in this so very extraordinary, or singular, beyond 

* Alluding to the celestial Charles with his Wain. 



milton's second defence. 14? 

what has been done by others in the same situ- 
ation ? What man upon a scaffold, on the point 
of closing the drama of life, and with a full 
conviction of it's vanity, would not do the 
same \ and either willingly lay aside, or at least 
pretend to lay aside, his enmities, resentments, 
and animosities (as about to quit the stage) 
with a view either to conciliate compassion, 
or to stamp an impression of his innocence 
upon the public mind ? That Charles only pre- 
tended to lay them aside, and never cordially 
and sincerely injoined his son to c pardon his 
murtherers,' or if he did so openly, that he 
gave him in private a different injunction, may 
be evinced by powerful arguments. For the 
son, in other particulars abundantly obedient, 
would assuredly have fulfilled the solemn re- 
quest of his c dying father,' conveyed to him 
with so much of religious sanction through the 
medium of a Bishop ! Yet, how did he fulfil it ? 
When he either ordered or authorised two of 
our Envoys (one in Holland and the other 
in Spain, the latter too in no respect impli- 
cated in the king's death) to be assassinated ; 
and has, finally, more than once by public pro- 
clamation announced his fixed purpose of not 
* pardoning his father's murtherers.'* Deter- 
mine, therefore, for yourself the truth of this 

* Yet Milton himself was, subsequently, pardoned ! 
L 2 



148 milton's second defence. 

little story of yours, which only praises the 
father at the expense of the son. 

Forgetful now of your original plan, you 
fabricate c Cries/ not c of the Royal Blood to 
Heaven,' but of the people to the parliament : 
with a degree of pragmatical intrusion into the 
concerns of another state, next to that of Sau- 
maise, most odious ; especially in one, who so 
wretchedly manages his own domestic concerns. 
Must the people complain, you filthy fellow, 
through your mouth, the very breath of which 
stinks of venereal putrefaction, enough to poison 
any person of tolerable purity ? And yet you 
ascribe to the people the lugubrious clamor of 
a parcel of unprincipled emigrants, and like 
some outlandish mountebank addressing a mob, 
mimic the noises of the meanest of animals. 
Who denies that periods may often occur, in 
which a great majority of the population is dis- 
affected, and disposed to follow rather a Catiline 
or an Antony, than the more virtuous part of 
the senate ?* And yet this is no argument why 
the good, weighing their duty rather than their 
deficiency of numbers, should not struggle 
against them with all possible energy. Let me 
advise you then to get your pretty little speech, 
in favour of the English people, inserted in the 



* Tec %tpnovc& viv.cc, and Major pars vicit meliorem, however 
appropriate, are no modern adages. 



milton's second defence. ]49 

pages of some historic poetaster, that the paper 
may not be wholly wasted, as we are not in 
want of such a goatish and offensive advocate. 

And now for our crimes against the Church ! 
The army is the very Lerna of every heresy. 
More dispasssionate appreciators pronounce it 
not only the bravest, but the most moderate and 
the most religious, of armies. Other camps are 
a scene of drunkenness, lewdness, rapine, gam- 
bling, blasphemy, and perjury: in ours, the 
troops employ their leisure in searching the 
truth, and studying the Scriptures ; nor does any 
one of them think it more honourable to con- 
quer an enemy, than to enlighten himself and 
his comrades in spiritual Concerns, to excel as a 
member of the state than of the Church Mili- 
tant.* And what, if war be rightly estimated, 
what is more becoming the character of sol- 
diers ? Levied for the express purpose of de- 
fending the laws, the red-coat guards of justice 
and protectors of the church, they ought to be — 
not the bloodiest and most ferocious, but the 
most civilised and humane of men. The true 
and proper end of their labours is, not to sow 
and to reap the cc iron harvest of the field," 
but to cultivate peace and safety for mankind. 
And should any, in their pursuit of these noble 
objects, be led astray either by the mistakes of 



f An actual band of Christian Heroes ; seeking the Lord, or 
their corkscrews ! 



150 milton's second defence. 

others or by their own infirmity of mind, they 
are to be reclaimed, not by severity, but by 
reason and admonition ; accompanied with 
prayer to God, who alone can dispel every 
error, and impart to whom he pleases the hea- 
venly light of truth. Of c heresies/ justly so 
denominated, we approve none : we do not even 
tolerate all. We would gladly, indeed, have them 
extirpated, but extirpated by right methods ; by 
instruction and the substitution of sounder doc- 
trine, as best adapted to the ailments of the 
mind ; not by the sword and the scourge, as if 
they were to be slashed and flogged out of the 
body. 

Another ; and not lighter, injury we have done 
(you allege) to xvhat is called c the temporal 
property' of the Church. Ask of the Dutch 
Protestants, or even of those of Upper Ger- 
many, whether they ever respected this species 
of property ? Is not the general pretext adduced 
by the Austrian Sovereign, whenever he wages 
war against them, the restitution of the domains 
of the Church ? These, however, were in fact the 
property not of the Church, but of churchmen ; 
in this respect eminently the pillars, I mean the 
caterpillars, of the Church. Wolves, indeed, is 
an appellation most appropriate to the greater 
part of them ; and, in applying to the exigencies 
of a war, occasioned by themselves, the property 
(or rather the accumulated prey) of those 
wolves, derived from the superstition and en- 



miltgn's second defence. 151 

joyed through the ignorance of so many ages, 
there could not be any impiety : especially, as 
no other resources remained for the demands of 
such an expensive and protracted struggle. 

But it was expected, that the income, thus 
violently torn from the Bishops, would be divided 
among the Presbyterian clergy. Yes, by them- 
selves, I know, it was expected, and anxiously 
coveted ; for they covet every thing. No whirl- 
pool so insatiable as clerical avarice ! In other 
places, the provision for the ministers of the 
Church was perhaps inadequate : but ours had 
surely enough, and more than enough, for their 
support. The sheep rather than the shepherds, 
not so much the feeders as the fed,* they had 
every thing fat around them, without the excep- 
tion even of their own heads. Gorging on 
tithes, a mode of maintenance disapproved by 
all other Protestant Churches, and with so little 
trust in God as to think it better to extort them 
through the intervention of the civil magistrate 
by force, than to owe their subsistence to divine 
providence or the affection and gratitude of 
their respective congregations ; they still, not- 
withstanding all this, so frequently guttle at the 
houses of their male and female followers, that 
they scarcely know what it is to dine or sup at 

* He had elsewhere said, 

* The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.' 

(Lyeid. 125,) 



152 milton's second defence. 

home. Hence they are generally characterised 
less by want, than by superfluity : their wives 
and children vie with those of the opulent in 
parade and luxury ; and to have fostered this 
prodigality by new accessions of income, would 
have been to infuse new poison (a taint be- 
wailed, in the days of Constantine, by a voice 
from heaven) into the Reformed Church. 

I proceed to reply to the charges respecting 
our offences against God, among which you 
particularly specify, our zvant of confidence in the 
divine assistance, our prayers, and our fasts. 
But " out of thine own mouth," thou most 
profligate of men, will I confute thee ; and re- 
tort upon thee thine own question in the words 
of the Apostle, " Who art thou, that judgest 
another man's servant?"* To our own master 
let us stand, or fall. I add also, in the language 
of David, * c when I weep and chasten my soul 
with fasting, that is to my reproach." t 

To go step by step over the rest of your deli- 
rious babblings upon this subject, which nobody 
will think of reading twice, would argue as 
much folly in me, as in yourself. Neither are 
your tedious prosings upon our successes less 
irrelevant. Take care, my friend, that you do 
not, in consequence of your Pontian efforts, 
catch cold with a stuffing in the head or a 
snuffling in the nose; so as, like your great 

9 Rqixi. xiv. 4. t Ps. Uix, 10, 



milton's second defence. 153 

Saumaise of late, to chill a hot bath. With re- 
gard to success in general, my opinion in few 
words is, that it proves nothing as to the good- 
ness of the cause, one way or the other. We 
wish, not that our cause should be estimated 
from it's success, but our success from the 
cause. 

You now, though a mere toad-eater to pro- 
fessors and proctors, boldly assume to discuss 
political subjects — the injuries, forsooth, which 
we have done to all Kings and all people 1 What 
* injuries?' We certainly did not mean to do 
any. Our sole object was, to regulate our own 
concerns, without interfering at all in those of 
others. If our neighbours derived any advan- 
tage from our example, we assuredly do not 
repine at it : if any mischief, that was not our 
fault ; it arose out of the abuse of our prin- 
ciples. And pray, what Kings or what people 
appointed you, you miscreant, the herald of 
their ' injuries?' Their Envoys and Embassa- 
dors, most undoubtedly, both in parliament (as 
I have been informed by those, who heard 
them) and in the Council, where I heard them 
myself, far from complaining of any l injuries/ 
anxiously solicited our friendship and alliance : 
nay, in the name of their respective Sovereigns 
congratulated us upon the state of our affairs, 
and zealously prayed for the continuance of our 
tranquillity, and the perpetuation of our suc- 
cesses. These are not the expressions of enmity, 



154 milton's second defence. 

or of hatred, as you represent them. The alter- 
native then is, either that you must be convicted 
of a lie, a slight speck indeed in your character ; 
or Kings, of deceit and dissimulation, which 
would be an indelible blot in theirs. 

But you quote our own acknowledgement, 
that " we have held out an example salutary to all 
people, and formidable to all tyrants" Inex- 
plicable crime ! as heinous, in fact, as if any 
one had said ; 

Discite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere Divos.* 
Learn justice, warn'd, and not to slight the Gods. 

Could any thing worse have been said ? This 
was the purport of Cromwell's letter to the 
Scots, after the battle of Dunbar : and worthy 
was that letter of himself, and of his noble vic- 
tory ! With such like glozing and cant phrases 
are the infamous pages of Milton besprinkled : 
You always assign me an illustrious collegue, 
and here you make me his equal, and even occa- 
sionally his superior : a circumstance, which I 
should consider as the highest honour you 
could confer, if any thing honourable could 
proceed from you. But those pages (you say) 
were burnt by the common hangman at Paris, 
under the orders of the parliament of that city. 
This was done, I have been informed, not by 
* the parliament,' but by a Lieutenant de Police 

* Virg. ^n. vi. 620, 



milton's second defence. 156 

(whether civil or uncivil, I cannot tell) on the 
instigation of those most sluggish of all animals, 
the clergy ; who trembled, even at such a far 
distance (and may heaven realise their appre- 
hensions !) for the fate of their own sensuality. 
But might not we, think you, in our turn have 
consigned Saumaise's ' Royal Defence' to the 
same doom ? With the utmost ease could I have 
procured this sentence from the magistrate, had 
I not thought his scurrilities better avenged by 
contempt. You, in your efforts to quench one 
fire by another, reared a pile for me, like that of 
Hercules, whence to rise with augmented lustre : 
we, more judiciously, forbore attempting to 
communicate any heat to the frozen pages of 
the c Royal Defence.' What surprises me is, 
that the inhabitants of Toulouse (for my work, 
I understand, was burnt also in that city) should 
have so degenerated from their ancestors, as on 
the very spot where freedom and religion were 
once eminently defended under the Counts Ray- 
mond, to sentence a defence of freedom and re- 
ligion to the flames. Would that the writer 
(you add) had been burnt along with it I Say 
you so, hangdog? You have taken admirable 
care, More, that I shall not retaliate the wish 
upon you. You have long ago been writhing 
under the fury of much hotter fires. You are 
scorched and shrivelled under the consciousness 
of your adulteries, your rapes, and your per- 
juries (by the aid of which you first foully de- 



156 milton's second defence. 

bauched, and then faithlessly deserted, your 
betrothed Pontia) finally, of that most abomi- 
nable phrensy, which drove you to lust after 
the sacred profession, and to pollute as a priest 
with vour incestuous touch the hallowed ele- 
ments, " not discerning the Lord's body;"* 
under the affectation of sanctity to denounce, in 
this c Cry' of yours, every one whom you repre- 
sent as affecting sanctity ; and by your own 
sentence to doom to destruction your devoted 
self. With this accumulation of crime and in* 
famy, you are all in a blaze : by these infuriate 
fires you are tortured, night and day ; and en- 
dure a punishment so keen, as to supersede the 
curse of your bitterest enemy. In the mean 
while, your public burnings do me no harm, 
they affect me not in the least. Nay, even the 
little ignominy, which they pretend to inflict, 
is abundantly balanced by many gratifying and 
delightful compensations. One court, one petty 
Parisian beadle, it seems, under some sinister 
influence consigned me to the flames : but in 
spite of this my opinions are studied, approved, 
and adopted by numbers of wise and good men 
throughout France, throughout the spacious 
tracts of Germany, that native home of Free- 
dom, and wherever in fact any traces of her 
footsteps are still to be found. And Greece, 
even Athens herself with all her Attic refine- 

* 1 Cor. xi. 29- 



milton's second defence. 157 

merit as it were reviving again, through the 
medium of her own most illustrious Philaras,* 
has given me her applause. For I can with 
truth aver that, from the first publication of my 
€ Defence/ as soon as it's readers acquired an in- 
terest in the subject, not a single Envoy from 
any foreign prince or state was then resident at 
our court, who did not either in our casual ren- 
contre congratulate me on it's appearance, or 
invite me to his house, or visit me at mine. 
And here, my dear Adrian Paw, I should ac- 
count myself unpardonably guilty, were I to 
pass over your memory in silence. Sent hither 
on a splendid embassy, the pride and the boast 
of Holland, you flatteringly signified to me by 
many special messages, though we never per- 
sonally met, your very high and extraordinary 
regard. It is, indeed, most delightful to me, 
often to recall to my remembrance (what, I am 
convinced, could never have happened without 
the peculiar favour of the Deity) the courtesy 
with which I have been treated by Kings, though 
the supposed impugner of kingly power ; and 
what an emphatic testimony they have borne, 

* An account of this distinguished scholar, and the interest 
which he expressed about the restoration of Milton's sight, with 
Milton's two classical Letters acknowledging the lirst kindness 
(in the prczclarum de nostra pro P. A. Defensione judicium) 
and the subsequent services of this native Athenarum Atticarum, 
may be found in Dr. Symmons' ( Life/ pp. 374- — 387. 



158 milton's second defence* 

not only to my opinion, as the more correct, 
but also to my integrity. Why should I shrink 
from making this declaration, when I recollect 
that most dignified of queens [Christina],* the 
theme of universal praise ? Not even he, the 
wisest of the Athenianst (with whom, however, 
I affect no comparison) was in my judgement 
more honoured by the testimony of Apollo 
himself, than I am by the approbation of such a 
patroness. Had it been my fortune to write 
this in my earlier years, and were rhetoric as 
highly privileged as poetry, I should not have 
scrupled to prefer my lot to that of some of the 
Gods themselves. It was theirs, to dispute the 
prize of beauty or of harmony before a mortal 
judge : I, a mortal, in far the noblest of con- 
tests, was pronounced victor by the decision of 
a goddess. So honoured, I cannot be treated 
with disrespect by any one, except a common 
hangman ; whether it be in the direction, or in 
the execution, of the abuse. 

Here you are extremely anxious, as Saumaise 
was before, that we should not be allowed to 
defend what we have done by the precedent of 
what the Dutch did in their struggles for liberty. 

* In the commendation of this singular woman, whose pranks 
(according to Warton) had ( neither elegance nor even decency/ 
Milton every where delights, and reverts to her evidently con 
amore. See a former Note. 

t Socrates. 



milton's second defence. 159 

I answer you both in the same way : c That 
they are mistaken, who think we depend upon 
any precedent \ that we often aided and abetted 
the Dutch in their struggles for liberty, but 
never thought it necessary to copy them ; that, 
if any great exertion was to be made in behalf 
of liberty, we are authorities to ourselves, and 
are wont not to follow others, but to lead the 
way/ * But you, you twopenny halfpenny orator, 
even dare to attempt to set the French at vari- 
ance with us by a parcel of miserable argu- 
ments, truly worthy of your own block-head : 
The spirit of France (you say) will never con- 
descend to receive an embassy from us. They 
have deigned, however, by a still greater con- 
descension, to send us one three or four times 
of their own accord. The French therefore are, 
as usual, high-minded ; and you a base dege- 
nerate fellow, wholly unacquainted with the 
first principles of politics, and a complete liar. 

You then exert yourself to prove, that the 
negotiation is purposely spun out by the United 
States, and that their object is neither to treat 
nor to quarrel xvith us. But it is surely the in- 
terest of their High Mightinesses, not to allow 
their projects to be thus exposed, and (if I may 
so speak) vitiated, by a vagabond from Geneva, 
to whom they have given shelter ; and who, if 



(Thucyd. II.) 



1 60 MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 

they endure him much longer, seems likely to 
debauch not only their servant-girls, but their 
public councils : when they themselves are pro- 
fessing for us the kindest and most sincere re- 
gard, and have recently, in compliance with 
the wish of all good men, entered into perma- 
nent c relations of peace and amity' with us. 

It was delightful (he says) to observe the 
hootings and hazards, to which these scoundrel 
envoys [from England] xvere daily exposed, not 
only on the part of the English Royalists, but 
still more on that of the Dutch. If we had not 
long known to whom to ascribe both the mur- 
ther of our former envoy Dorislaus, and the 
subsequent insults sustained by two of his suc- 
cessors, we have here an informer, falsely im- 
peaching those to whom he owes his shelter and 
support ! And will you still, Hollanders, tolerate 
among you one who debases his sacred pro- 
fession not only by lust, but by blood-thirsti- 
ness ; not only by recommending the violation 
of all faith, but by foully arraigning the inno- 
cent as guilty of that violation ? 

The last article of the charge is, our injuries 
tozvard the Reformed Churches. And how 6 our 
injuries toward them,' rather than theirs to- 
ward us ? If you refer to examples, from the 
instances of the V/aldenses, # and the inhabi- 

* <c The hand of the Latin Secretary, says Dr. Symmons, 
most ably concurred with the spirit of the Executive Council ; 



milton's second defence. 16 i 

tants of Toulouse to the famine of Rochelle,, 
you will find that we have been the last of all 
churches to take up arms against tyrants. But 
we have been the jirst to sentence them to death* 
Yes; because we first had it in our -power: 
What others would have done, under similar 
circumstances, I apprehend they themselves can 
scarcely tell. In my mind he, against whom we 
wage war, in every rational and sensible view of 

and during his continuance in office, which was prolonged to 
the Restoration, the state-papers in his department may be re- 
garded as models in the class of diplomatic composition. They 
speak, indeed, the language of energy and wisdom; and, en- 
titled equally to the applause of the scholar and the statesman, 
they must have impressed foreign states with a high opinion of 
that government for which they were written, and in the service 
of which so much ability was engaged. It may be observed, 
that the character of their immediate author is too great to be 
altogether lost in that of the ministerial organ, and that in 
many of them Milton may be traced in distinct, though not dis- 
cordant, existence from the power for which he acts. See the 
letters, which he wrote in the Protector's name to mediate for 
the oppressed Protestants of Piedmont to the Duke of Savoy, 
to the Prince of Transilvania, to the King of Sweden, to the 
States of Holland, Switzerland, and Geneva, and to the Kings 
of France and of Denmark. These Letters, which might be 
reprinted with great appositeness to the late bloody transactions 
in the South of France, it will give the reader pleasure to be 
told, were not written in vain. The unhappy victims (it ought 
to be added) though in these official despatches called ' Pro- 
testants/ had neither connexion nor a common origin with 
those, who were properly so named from one of the first acts of 
their association in Germany. The Waldenses asserted a much 
more ancient pedigree ; and assumed to be of -the old Roman 
Church; before it was corrupted by papal innovations. 

M 



162 milton's second defence. 

the matter is deemed an enemy ; and the same 
principle, upon which you attack an enemy, 
authorises you to put him to death. A tyrant 
therefore, as the enemy not only of England, 
but of all mankind, may not more lawfully be 
attacked, than be put to death. This is no ex- 
clusive or original opinion of mine : it has 
been suggested to others by prudence, or by 
common sense long ago. Hence Cicero, in his 
c Oration for Rabirius :' " If it were criminal to 
kill Saturninus, it could not be innocent to 
take up arms against him ; if you admit that 
arms were legally taken up against him, you 
must also necessarily admit that he was legally 
killed. " On this head I have spoken at some 
length above, as well as frequently in other 
places, and the thing is most indisputable. 
Hence you may form some conjecture what the 
French would have done, had they had the 
same power.* Nay, I go farther and affirm 
that, whoever oppose a tyrant in the field do in 
in fact, to the extent of their power, put him to 
death ; and have already in spirit put him to 
death, however they may try to dupe them- 
selves, or others, by absurd reasonings to the 
contrary. This doctrine indeed is not more 
referable to us, than to the Gauls, whom you 
labour to exempt from the disgraceful imputa- 

* How truly this sounds, after January 21, 1793 ! And how 
much deeper did the French plunge in blood, as soon as the^\ 
had it in their power ! 



milton's second defence. 163 

tion of it. For to whom, but to the Gauls, do 
we owe the ' Franco-Gallia, 9 the * Defence 
against Tyrants' (a work, commonly ascribed 
to Beza*) and those other writings mentioned 
by De Thou ? And yet you exclaim, as if I 
were the sole author, Upon this subject, Milton 
is completely absorbed, whose frantic folly I 
would have dealt with as it deserves — c You 
would have dealt with,' caitiff? If the church 
of Middleburgh, disgraced and disconsolate 
under your ministry, had c dealt with' your in- 
famous profligacy ' as it deserved,' it would 
long since have consigned you to perdition ; 
if the civil power had c dealt with it, as it de- 
served,' you would long since have expiated 
your debaucheries on a gibbet. And this will 
ere long, probably, be your fate : for your Mid- 
dleburgh congregation (I am told) are at length 
roused to a regard for their own fame, and have 



* Now known to have been written by the learned French 
jurist Hotman, who having adopted the doctrines of the Refor- 
mation, and owed his escape from the fury of the Massacre of 
St. Bartholomew to the exertions of his grateful scholars, ac- 
cepted in 1573 the chair of Civil Law at Geneva, and there 
drew up his own favourite performance, the f Franco-Gallia, 
sive Tractatus Isagogicus de Regimine Regum Gallics et de 
Jure Successionis* which however gave great offence not only 
to the nation in general, but even to several Protestants. It's 
object was, to prove the crown of France elective, and that the 
people had a right to depose and create kings ; as, also, that 
women ought wholly to be excluded from the management of 
public affairs. It was translated by Lord Molesworth. 

M 2 



164 milton's second defence. 

expelled you, goatsucker, or rather stinking 
goat as you are ! Hence the magistracy of 
Amsterdam have closed their pulpits, your scene 
of exhibition, against you ; and have forbidden 
the disgustful babbling of that impure mouth, 
of that impious voice, to be heard from those 
hallowed places. Your Greek professorship 
alone is now left to you; and that too will 
shortly be taken from you, with the exception 
of a single letter (n), on which you will not 
harangue as professor, but hang as possessor.* 
This I augur, not in a spirit of passion : I am 
only passing sentence upon you. Far from being 
hurt, indeed, by such railers as you, we con- 
stantly long for such : nay, deem it actually a 
proof of the divine kindness, that our bitterest 
opponents have chiefly been of this description ; 
whose invectives instead of infamy have con- 
ferred honour and commendation, as their com- 
mendation would have had all the effect of 
invective. But what, my valiant little hero, 
held your uplifted hand f 

* This allusion will easily be interpreted by schoolboys 
who are accustomed to denounce against any one stealing their 
books, 

n ilium pro mentis, litera Grceca, manet. 

In the ' Pro Se Defensio ' he again alludes to this species 
of punishment, patibulo pendens luisses, which he introduces 
with a quaint pun, replying to his adversary, who had called 
him " Orestis cemule" in the language of Echo, « restis 



miltgn's second defence. 163 

If I had not determined to forbear encroaching 
upon the province of the great Saumaise, to whom 
I leave the undivided glory of conquering this 
great antagonist. As I now participate with 
him in the epithet c great/ I may perchance be 
a less manageable ' province' to him, espe- 
cially since his decease. About conquest, so 
truth prevail, I am very little solicitous. But 
you bawl out, m continuation : Of parricide 
they make an article of faith », and would, if they 
durst, openly defend it by the concurrence of the 
Reformed Churches. 'This,' says Milton, c was 
the judgement of the most eminent divines, to 
whom we owe the Reformation. 9 So it was, I 
repeat it ; and so I have fully proved it to be in 
my work entitled, c The Tenure of Kings and 
Magistrates,' of which a second edition has made 
it's appearance, and in several other places. It 
is tiresome to go over the same ground again, 
and again. But there the very passages are 
cited verbatim from Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, 
Bucer, Martyr, Paraeus, and lastly from Knox 
himself, to which Scotchman alone (you say) I 
allude, and whom all the Reformed Churches 9 
especially those of France, in this particular 
condemned. In contradiction to this he, as I 
there state, affirms that he received the doctrine 
expressly from Calvin and other eminent theo- 
logians of that day, with whom he had lived in 
habits of the utmost intimacy. You will find 
likewise in that treatise many quotations, to 



166 milton's second defence. 

the same purport, from the writings of the more 
respectable English divines, during the reigns 
of Mary and Elizabeth. 

At last, with a wicked mockery of tedious 
prayer to God, you wind up your peroration, 
and impudently raise your adulterous eyes to 
heaven ! Be it so. I will not interrupt you. 
You cannot till higher the " measure of your 
iniquity.'' 

I now return, in conformity to my promise, 
and by concentrating the principal allegations 
against Cromwell, intend to show how frivolous 
they must separately be, when collectively they 
amount to nothing at all. 

He declared, before several witnesses, his fixed 
purpose of overturning all monarchies, and of 
exterminating all kings. We have already seen, 
more than once, what credit is due to your 
stories. Some emigrant, perhaps, told you that 
Cromwell had made this declaration. Of these 
' several witnesses,' you do not name so much 
as one. Your unsupported scurrility, therefore, 
falls of itself to the ground. Cromwell was 
never heard to brag even of his actual achieve- 
ments. It is not therefore very likely, that he 
should have uttered any arrogant promise or 
menace, as to things of difficulty yet unachieved. 
Your authors consequently must have had more 
of inclination and constitution, than of inge- 
nuity, in their lies ; or they would never have 
fabricated a falsehood so abhorrent from his 



milton's second defence. 167 

very disposition. The kings, whom you so fre- 
quently entreat to take care of themselves, 
wheu they have provided for their own safety, 
will do well (without paying any attention to 
you, or to street-politicians of your description) 
to adopt measures worthy of themselves, and 
more conducive to the discovery of their own 
true interests. 

A second charge against Cromwell is, that he 
persuaded Charles to withdraw privately to the 
Isle of Wight. Charles, it is notorious, beside 
many other fatal errors, thrice seriously injured 
himself by flight : first, when he fled from 
London to York ; next, when he took refuge 
with the Scottish army, which was then in 
English pay ; and, finally, when he retired to 
the Isle of Wight. But this last measure was 
adopted on Cromwell 9 s suggestion. Really ! How 
wonderfully consistent those Royalists are, who 
uniformly represent their King as the most pru- 
dent of men, and yet at the same time as never 
having a will of his own. Among friends or 
among enemies, in the cabinet or in the field, 
he is invariably under the influence of others — 
of his wife, his bishops, his courtiers, his army, 
his very adversaries ; seeming generally to have 
followed the worst advice, and commonly of 
the worst advisers. Charles is brought over, 
Charles is imposed upon ; Charles is duped by 
vain fears, or by hopes equally vain ; Charles is 
made the common and universal prey, both of 



168 

friends and of foes. Let them either expunge 
then these proofs of his ductility, or forego 
their praises of his sagacity. 

Wisdom and penetration however, though in 
themselves qualities highly creditable, in a com- 
monwealth rent by factions have, I own, their 
inconveniences. They expose their possessors, 
in fact, alternately to the calumnies of both 
parties. This, Cromwell frequently experienced 
to his disadvantage : as to him exclusively, and 
not to the parliament, both Presbyterians and 
Royalists ascribed every measure of supposed 
severity ; nay, imputed to his art and trea- 
chery the disastrous consequences even of their 
own mismanagement. Upon him are heaped 
all kinds of reprehension ; he bears the sole 
responsibility. And yet it is most certain, that 
Charles' flight to the Isle of Wight was as 
sudden and as surprising to Cromwell, who was 
then at some miles' distance, as it could be to 
any of the members of parliament at that time 
sitting in London, to whom he instantly wrote 
the very moment he heard of the unexpected 
occurrence. The real fact was ; the King, ter- 
rified by the clamors of the whole army (which, 
finding him unimproved either by a sense of 
duty, or a regard to his engagements, had 
begun to insist upon his execution) determined, 
with only two* attendants, to make his escape 

* Three, says Hume ; Sir John Berkeley, Ashburnham, and 
Leg. But he concurs in stating, that the King had not " any 



milton's second defence. 169 

by night. More fixed however as to the pur- 
pose than the place, and not knowing where 
to take refuge through the ignorance or the 
cowardice of his followers, he surrendered him- 
self to Hammond, the Governor of the Isle of 
Wight ; trusting that he might easily pass 
thence, in a ship privately provided for the 
occasion, into France or Holland. These par- 
ticulars of his Majesty's flight I learned from 
persons, who had the best opportunities of tho- 
roughly sifting the whole affair. 

Cromwell is farther criminated, as having 
been the instrument, through whom the English 
were gained* a great victory over the Scots. 
Not f were gained/ More, but c gained ' most 
gloriously, without a solecism. Think, what a 
bloody battle to their enemies it must have 
been, when you could not even simply mention 
it without breaking that professor's head of 
yours through your agitation against Priscian's 
bookcase ! But let us see what this heinous 
guilt of Cromwell's is, in having so decisively 
vanquished the Scots, who were daring to in- 
vade, and hoping to enthral, their English neigh- 
bours. In the midst of these tumults, while 
Cromwell zvith his army is out of the way — Nay - y 
while Cromwell, though worn out by quelling 
the Welch revolt and by the fatigues of a long 

concerted, at least any rational, scheme for the future disposal 
of his person." (Chap, lix.) 
* Parti sunt. 



1T0 MILTONV SECOND DEFENCE. 

siege,* saw and conquered a foe, which had 
advanced into the very heart of the kingdom, 
and threatened parliament itself — the Presby- 
terians conceived a disgust against him. Here 
you, for once, speak the truth. While he is 
risking his life for the common safety, the Pres- 
byterians assail him at home with a parcel of 
forged accusations, though he is bravely ex- 
posing himself at the very time in their defence, 
and suborn a Major Huntington t to depose 
falsely against him ! Who can even hear the ac- 
count of such monstrous ingratitude, without 
horror ? Under their instigation, also, a most un- 
principled and profligate rabble of apprentices 
in great numbers besieged the door of the House 
of Commons, and by their clamor and violence 
(O shame !) obliged them to enact, whatever 
they chose to prescribe. Thus must we have sub- 
mitted to have seen our Camillus, on his return 
from defeating the Scots, either driven into 
exile, or doomed to an ignominious death : had 
not General Fairfax;}: opposed this disgraceful 

* Milton here alludes first to the royalist insurgents of 1648; 
whom Colonel Horton had driven into Pembroke, where they 
were besieged and taken by Cromwell ; and, secondly, to the 
successive defeats of Langdale and Hamilton, near Preston in 
Lancashire, where that vigorous commander at the head of 
3,000 men subdued nearly thrice the number of Scots. 

f See Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, III. 75, 81 3 
728. Ed. 8vo. Oxf. 1717- 

X To this respectable name is inscribed Milton's Fifteenth 
Sonnet, which however (with the Sixteenth to Cromwell, and 



milton's second defence. 171 

reception of his great lieutenant; had not the 
whole army, itself too treated with no very 
particular gratitude, effectively interfered in 
his behalf. These, entering the city, easily 
reduced the civic insurgents; and very pro- 
perly expelled from their seats such members, 
as were known to be favourable to the Scottish 
party. The rest, emancipated from the control 
of the mob, broke off the treaty, which in 
opposition to the published resolution of the 
parliament had been opened with the King 
in the Isle of Wight : and Huntington the ac- 
cuser, left unpunished and at large, in a fit of 
remorse voluntarily solicited Cromwell's for- 
giveness, and furnished him with the names of 
his infamous employers. 

Such are the chief charges, in addition to 
those which I have above refuted, adduced 
against this illustrious deliverer of his country. 
Their weight you may easily estimate. But 
simply to prove that such a man, who has de- 
served so well of the commonwealth, has done 
nothing criminal, would be a poor discharge of 
duty : especially since it is not more for the 
credit of my country than that of myself, as 
closely implicated with him in the same infamy, 

the Twenty First and Twenty Second to his friend Cyriac Skin- 
ner) notwithstanding the merit of the poetry, was not for 
obvious political reasons inserted m the edition of 1673. They 
were first printed, Warton informs us, after the Revolution had 
rendered good verse on any side less hazardous, in 16<M. 



172 milton's second defence. 

to exhibit him to the utmost of ability to all 
nations and ages, as the best and most illustrious 
of men. 

Oliver Cromwell is sprung from a distin- 
guished race of ancestors,* eminent for their 
public services under the monarchy, and still 
more eminent for their zeal in the restoration 
and establishment of the true religion. He 
himself had grown up, " in peace and pri- 
vacy" at home, to a robust and vigorous man- 

* To prove tlie antiquity of his family, it may be enough to 
state, that it was distinguished even in the pedigrees of Wales 
in times anterior to the Conquest. Any one, who has perused 
the first ninety pages of Noble's * Memoirs of the Protectoral 
House,' and Letter (D) in his * Proofs and Illustrations,' will 
admit that Cromwell was abundantly justified in asserting (in 
his Speech of Sept. 12, 1654) that, f he was by birth a gentle- 
man/ His piety is much more equivocal. I make no inference 
from the character of him inserted immediately after his name in 
the Admission- Boot of Sidney College, Cambridge, in a smaller 
letter and at a posterior period, by some inveterate enemy ; ' e Hie 
Juit grandis ille impostor, camifex perditissimus, qui pientissimo 
rege Carol o 1°. nefaria ccede sublato ipsum usurpavit thronum, 
et tria regno, per quinque ferme annorum spatium sub Pro- 
iectoris nomine indomita tyrannide vexavit :" but the traditional 
story of the Corkscrew, which Hume (Chap. Ixi.) has not dis- 
dained to preserve, proves that even during the Protectorate he 
was thought capable of profane levity. The historian, indeed, 
elsewhere calls him a a fanatical hypocrite." His dress however, 
to say nothing of the suspicious testimony of the turncoat 
South, appears on the evidence of Sir Philip Warwick to have 
afforded no proof of his personal or family respectability. 

The character of this half-zealot, half-impostor, is drawn 
with equal precision and spirit by Dr. Symmons, in his Life of 
Milton, pp. 436, 473. 



milton's second defence. 173 

hood; known principally for the strictness of 
his piety and integrity, and silently cherish- 
ing in his heart a confidence in God, and a 
magnanimity well adapted to the emergencies 
that followed. In the parliament last* sum- 
moned by the King, he was elected Represen- 
tative for his native borough (Huntingdon) and 
quickly distinguished himself in it by the cor- 
rectness of his opinions, and the energy of his 
advice. When arms were resorted to, he offered 
his services, and was appointed Captain of a 
troop of horse; but from the number of good 
men, who thronged on all sides to his standard, 
he received such accessions, that in a short 
time he surpassed nearly the most experienced 
generals in the magnitude and the rapidity of 
his achievements. Neither was this at all sur- 
prising. For from his thorough exercise in the 
art of self-knowledge, he had either extermi- 



* There seems here some slight inaccuracy ; as from the au- 
thority of both Willis and Sir William Dugdale it appears, that 
he sat as member in 1625., 1 Charles I. From his fervid speeches 
against government, Warwick informs us, he was speedily 
noticed. Hampden even prophesied to Lord Digby, that ' the 
sloven about whom he was inquiring would, in the event of a 
breach (which he warmly deprecated) between the King and the 
Parliament, be the greatest man in England : ' and, notwith- 
standing Hume's assertion that " his name for above two years- 
is not to be found oftener than twice in any Committee, from the 
Journals of the House of Commons it appears in no less than 
twenty (some of them, too, of great importance) between De* 
member 17, 1641, and June 20, 1642 ! 



174 milton's second defence. 

nated or subjugated his domestic foes, his idle 
hopes, his fears, and his desires.* Having thus 
learned to engage, and subdue, and triumph 
over himself, he took the field against his 
outward enemies^ a soldier practised in all the 
discipline of war. It would be impossible for 
me, within the bounds of this limited compo- 
sition, to do justice to his exploits ; the cities 
which he has taken, the battles (and those too 
signal battles) which he has fought without ever 
having experienced a defeat, or even a disaster, 
the victories which he has won in every part of 
the British domains. These would supply ma- 
terials for a regular history, and demand as it 
were a new field, co-extensive with themselves, 
for the copious detail. I must satisfy myself 
therefore with stating, as a single proof of his 

* Those victories of peace, 

No less renown'd than war ; 

the achiever of which the old poet pronounces braver, than th£ 
vanquisher of the strongest walls. " To well manage our affec- 
tions, and wild horses of Plato, are the highest Circenses (says 
that quaintest of moralists, Sir Thomas Browne) and the 
noblest digladiation is in the theatre of ourselves : for therein 
our inward antagonists, not only like common gladiators with 
ordinary weapons and downright blows make at us, but also 
like retiary and laqueary combatants with nets, frauds, and en- 
tanglements fall upon us." 

Dr. Sprat, in his Ode upon Cromwell's death, says (in su 
somewhat different sense, however) 

Thy conquests raised the state, not thee : 
Thou overcamest thyself, in every victory. 



MILTON 's SECOND DEFENCE. 175 

peculiar and almost preternatural excellence: 
that by the force of his soul and genius, or of 
his discipline (in addition to his care of military 
tactics, exerted in introducing an almost Chris- 
tian degree of purity and virtue among his 
troops) he either attracted from all quarters fol- 
lowers that were good and brave to his camp, 
as to a school not more of military instruction 
than of religion and piety, or rendered them 
such by his example ; and throughout the whole 
war, and occasionally during the intervals of 
peace, in all the fluctuations of party and of 
events, in spite of much opposition, held and 
now holds them in,* not by largesses or relax- 
ation of command, but by his sole authority 
and with their mere pay — a circumstance, m 
which he may be compared with the Cyruses, 
Epaminondases, and other first-rate worthies of 
antiquity. For hence he raised an army as nu- 
merous and as well equipped, as was ever before 
done within so short a period ; lessoned to the 
most perfect obedience, high in the affection of 
it's fellow-citizens, and not more formidable to 
it's enemies in the field than admirable for it's 
behaviour to them out of it ; having so forborne 
all injury to their persons or properties, in com* 
parison with the violence, intemperance, pro- 
faneness, and debauchery of their own Royalists, 
as to make them exult in the change, and hail in 

* See Hume, upon this " new-modelling " of the Axmy A 
£hap. Iviii. 



176 milton's second defence. 

tliem a host not of fiends but of friends : a 
protection to the good, a terror to the bad, and 
an encouragement to every species of piety and 
virtue. 

To you, Fairfax, also I should be guilty of 
flagrant injustice, were I here to omit your 
name ; you, in whom nature and providence 
have combined, with the truest courage, the 
highest modesty and the utmost purity of life. 
You have a peculiar claim, and right to be 
summoned to a participation of these praises, 
indeed : though, in character and inclination 
like Scipio Africanus at Liternum, you seek to 
hide yourself as much as possible in your rural 
retreat ; victor, not only over the enemy, but 
over ambition and glory, which even the most 
illustrious of men have been unable to resist. 
There you enjoy your virtues and your achieve- 
ments in that most delightful and honourable 
ease, which is the object of all human exertion, 
and which (as enjoyed by the heroes of anti- 
quity, after engagements and exploits not su- 
perior to your own) their poetical panegyrists 
despaired of adequately expressing otherwise, 
than by representing them as received into 
heaven and admitted to the banquets of the 
gods. Whether however considerations of 
health, as I am most inclined to believe, or 
some other motive withdrew you from public 
life, I am perfectly satisfied that nothing could 
have forced you to relinquish the service of 



Hilton's second defence. 177 

the commonwealth, but a full conviction that 
in your successor you left her a protector of 
her liberty, and a supporter and defender of 
all her rights. For so long as you, Cromwell, 
are safe, to tremble for the safety of England is 
to distrust the Deity, whom every one must ob- 
serve most partial to you and most evidently 
ranged on your side. But you were at that 
time exclusively engaged in other military en- 
terprises. 

Instead of protracting my narration of your 
exploits however, I will, if possible, despatch it 
with a brevity proportioned to the rapidity of 
the exploits themselves. Ireland, with the ex- 
ception of a single city, was totally lost. Thi- 
ther you hurried over your troops, in an early 
engagement crushed the strength of the mal- 
contents, and were daily following up your 
advantage, when you were suddenly recalled to 
the Scottish war. Without losing a moment 
you march against the Scots, then under their 
King preparing an irruption into England ; in 
about a twelvemonth subjugated and annexed 
to your country a kingdom, which had been 
vainly attempted by our monarchs throughout a 
period of eight hundred years ; and pursuing 
by forced marches the remains of their army, 
still strong and active, which in a fit of despera- 
tion had unexpectedly advanced through Eng- 
land (at that time, almost ungarrisoned) as far as 



178 MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 

Worcester,* in one battle you cut them off, and 
took prisoners nearly the whole of their nobility. 
In the profound peace which ensued we found 
you, not however then for the first time, as 
effective in the cabinet as you had previously 
been in the field. Your unremitting endeavour 
in parliament was, to enforce a religious ob- 
servance of treaties made with the enemy, or a 
speedy adoption of measures demanded by the 
interests of the commonwealth. When you saw 
those measures studiously procrastinated, and 
beheld individuals anxious about promoting 
their own interests rather than those of the 
public, while the many felt that they were 
baulked of their hopes and sacrificed to the 
overgrown power of the few, the delinquents 
themselves attending to no warnings, you put a 
period to their domination. A new parliament 

* This victory, his { crowning mercy/ as well as that of 
Dunbar, was gained on his favourite third of September, his 
birthday. He carried his superstition, indeed (or rather, per- 
haps, hoped to carry the superstition of his soldiers) to the 
length of believing, that whatever he enterprised upon that 
day, was destined to be successful. The parliament of 1654 
here alluded to, in which the small boroughs, as " most exposed 
to influence and corruption," had no representatives (270 of 
it's 400 members being chosen by the counties, and the rest 
elected by London and the more considerable corporations) was 
summoned upon this day ; and upon this day four years after- 
ward — as if to mock his calculations ! — the Protector himself 
died. 



milton's second defence. 179 

is summoned, the right of suffrage having been 
limited to proper electors. The members meet, 
and — do nothing. At last, after having long 
exhausted themselves by mutual quarrels and 
recriminations, and discovered their incompe- 
tency and incapacity for the great discussions 
before them, they consent to their own dissolu- 
tion.* We are abandoned, Cromwell ; you 
alone remain to us. You have the sole and entire 
care of us : upon you singly we repose. To 
your unparallelled virtue we all resign ourselves, 
with not a syllable muttered against you ; except 
by such as either with far inferior pretensions 
aspire to equal honours, or envy those conferred 
upon their superiors, or perceive not that nothing 
in the world can be more acceptable to God, 
more agreeable to reason, or more expedient in 
policy, than that the highest in worth should be 
the most exalted in power. Such, Cromwell, 
are you, by the confession of all men. Such 
have been your services, greatest and most illus- 
trious of citizens, guide of our councils, general 
of our armies, c Father of our common Country;' 
for so are you hailed by the unprompted and 
cordial voice of all the good. Other appella- 
tions, as more adequate to your excellence, 
your exploits neither acknowledge, nor indeed 

* Their minimum of duration, " five months," he computed 
to be 140 days; and on the expiration of that tXctwrcirtfov of 
constitutional existence, he made them (as we learn from Hume) 
a tedious, confused, angry harangue, and dismissed them. 

N2 



180 milton's second defence. 

admit : those proud titles, which sound so great 
in the vulgar ear, they properly reject. For 
what is a title, but a definite limit of dignity ? 
Whereas your achievements exceed all limit, 
not only of title, but even of admiration ; and 
like the points of pyramids, rising above the 
breath of popular applause, hide themselves in 
the skies. Since however it is politically expe- 
dient, if not philosophically correct, that the 
honour paid to eminent virtue should be defined 
and bounded by some human distinction, you 
have condescendingly thought it right, with a 
view to the public good, to assume a title* 
most like that of e Father of your Country ;' a 
title, by which you are, not exalted, but brought 
down as it were from your elevation more 
nearly to the level of ordinary men. The 
name of c King/ with a far superior feeling 
of majesty, you disdained ; and most properly. 
For after having humbled and annihilated that 
name as a private man, to have been captivated 
by it in the midst of your glory, would have 
been almost the same as if, after having sub- 
dued some idolatrous nation by the help of 
the true God, you had bent the knee to the 
idols which you had vanquished. 

Proceed then,t O Cromwell, with the same 



* That of f Protector.' 

t The magnanimity and high tone of this address, though 
adduced in our days to prove the sycophancy of it's author, was 



milton's second defence. 181 

loftiness of mind : for it becomes you well. 
The redeemer as you are of your country, the 
author and guardian and preserver of her liberty, 
you can assume no additional character more 
important or more august ; * since not only the 
actions of our kings, but the fabled exploits of 
our heroes, are overcome by your achievements. 
Reflect, then, frequently (how dear alike the 
trust, and the parent from whom you have re- 
ceived it !) that to your hands your country has 
commended and confided her freedom : that 
what she lately expected from her choicest repre- 
sentatives, she now expects, now hopes, from you 
alone. O reverence this high expectation, this 
hope of your country relying exclusively upon 
yourself! Reverence the glances and the gashes 
of those brave men, who have so nobly struggled 

objected to him by his adversary More as an evidence of his 
overweening and imperious spirit : Qjtice quidem omnia spirkus 
tibi tarn altos induerunt, ut proximus a primo censeri concu- 
piverisy adeoque celsissimo Cromuello celsior appareas inter- 
dum ; quern sine ulla honoris prcefatione Jamiliaritcr appellas, 
quern specie laudantis doces, cui leges dicias, titulos circum- 
scribis, munia prcescribis, consilia suggeris, et si secus Jecerii 
minas ingeris. Illi arma et imperium concedis, ingenium tibi 
togamque vindicas. (Fides Publica, pp. 72, 73. See Dr. 
Symmons, 441, not.) 

* It may be proper here with Dr. Symmons to remark, that 
the allusion in this place is not to Cromwell's rejection of the 
crown, for that was not offered to him till two years afterward, 
in 1656; but to the result of a consultation on the subject, 
immediately before the dismission of the Long Parliament, 
between him and some of his principal friends, when Whitlocke 
strongly dissuaded him from assuming the title of ' King/ 



182 MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 

for liberty under your auspices, as well as the 
shades of those who perished in the conflict ! 
Reverence also the judgement, and the dis- 
courses, of foreign communities : their lofty 
anticipations with respect to our freedom so 
valiantly obtained, to our republic so gloriously 
established, of which the speedy extinction 
would involve us in the deepest disgrace and 
ignominy! Reverence, finally, yourself; and 
suffer not that liberty, for the attainment of 
which you have endured so many hardships, 
and encountered so many perils, to sustain any 
violation from your own hands, or any encroach- 
ment from those of others. Without our free- 
dom, in fact, ycu cannot yourself be free : for 
it is justly ordained by nature that he, who in- 
vades the liberty of others, shall in the very 
outset lose his own, and be the first to feel the 
servitude which he has induced. But if the 
great patron himself, the tutelary Deity (as it 
were) of freedom, if the man most eminent for 
justice and sanctity and general excellence 
should assail the liberty which he has asserted, 
the issue must necessarily be pernicious, if not 
fatal, both to the aggressor, and to the entire 
system and interests of piety herself Honour 
and virtue would, indeed, in that case appear to 
be empty names ; and the credit and character 
of religion would decline and perish under a 
wound more deep than any which, since the 
first transgression, had been inflicted on the 
race of man. 






milton's second defence. 183 

You have engaged in a most arduous under- 
taking, which will search you to the quick j 
which will scrutinise you through and through ; 
which will bring to the severest test your spirit, 
your energy, your stability ; which will ascer- 
tain whether you are really actuated by that 
living piety, fidelity, equity, and moderation, 
which seem with the favour of God to have 
raised you to your present high dignity. To 
rule with your counsels three mighty realms ; 
in the place of their erroneous institutions to 
introduce a sounder system of doctrine and 
of discipline, to pervade their remotest pro- 
vinces with unremitting attention, anxiety, vigi- 
lance, and foresight, to decline no labours, to 
yield to no blandishments, to spurn the pagean- 
tries of wealth and of power — these are diffi- 
culties, in comparison with which those of war 
are the mere levities of play : these will sift 
and winnow you : these demand a man sus- 
tained by the divine assistance, tutored and in- 
structed almost by a personal communication 
with his God. These and more than these you 
often, I doubt not, revolve and make the sub- 
jects of your deepest meditation ; greatly solici- 
tous how they may most happily be achieved, 
and your country's freedom strengthened and 
secured ; and these objects you cannot, in my 
judgement, otherwise effect than by admitting, 
as you do, to an intimate share in your counsels 
the men, who have already participated your 
toils and your dangers — men of the utmost 



184 MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 

moderation, integrity, and valour ; not rendered 
savage or austere by the sight of so much blood- 
shed, and of so many forms of death ; but in- 
clined to justice, to the reverence of the Deity, 
and to a sympathy with human suffering, and ani- 
mated for the preservation of liberty with a zeal 
strengthened by the hazards which they have 
encountered for it's sake : not raked together 
from the dregs of our own, or of a foreign 
populace ; not a band of mercenary adven- 
turers — but men, chiefly, of superior condition ; 
in extraction, noble or reputable ; with respect 
to property, considerable or competent, or (in 
some instances) deriving a stronger claim to 
our regard, even from their poverty itself: not 
convened by the lust of plunder, but in times 
of extreme difficulty, and under circumstances 
generally doubtful and often almost desperate, 
excited to vindicate their native land from oppres- 
sion ; and prompt, not only in the safety of 
the " senate-house" to wage the war of words, 
but to join battle with the enemy in the field. 
If we will then renounce the idleness of eternal 
and fallacious expectation, I see not in whom, 
if not in these and such as these, we can place 
reliance or trust. Of their fidelity we have the 
surest and most indisputable proof, in the rea- 
diness which they have shown even to die, if it 
had been their lot, in the cause of their country ; 
of their piety, in the devotion with which, 
having repeatedly and successfully implored the 
protection of heaven, they uniformly ascribed 



milton's second defence. 185 

all the glory to Him, from whom they had 
solicited the victory ; of their equity, in their 
not having exempted even their King from trial 
and from execution ; of their moderation, in 
our own experience, and in the certainty that 
if their violence should disturb the peace which 
they have established, they would themselves 
be the foremost to feel the resulting mischiefs, 
and receive the first wounds in their own bodies, 
while they were again doomed to struggle for 
all their fortunes and honours now happily se- 
cured ; of their fortitude, lastly, in that none 
ever recovered their liberty with more bravery 
or effect, to give us the assurance that none will 
ever watch over it with more solicitous anxiety. 
I gladly seize the opportunity of enumerating 
several illustrious names : and first yours, Fleet- 
wood, # whom from your very first entrance into 



* Charles Fleetwood, Esq. who became son 'in law to the 
Protector by marrying Mrs. Ireton, his eldest daughter, was of 
an ancient Lancashire family. He was one of Cromwell's 
Privy Councillors, and of his Peers, and was made by him Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland. See Noble, I. 36'9, 375. II. 347, 354. 
His brother Sir George also, who succeeded Hampden as 
Member for Bucks, and signed the warrant for the execution of 
Charles I., was raised to the same degree of transient nobility. 
His hypocritical tears upon his trial, as a regicide, procured his 
pardon. He was, subsequently, released from the Tower; 
and, upon reaching New England, gloried in e the good old 
cause ! ' 

The same fleeting honours were shared by Desborough, or 
Disbrowe (See Noble II. 274, &c.) and to a smaller extent by 



186 milton's second defence, 

the army to your present military rank (which is 
all but supreme) I have known unaltered in 
humanity, in gentleness, and in benevolence; 
and whom the foe has felt most valiant and un- 
daunted in winning, as well as most merciful 
after having won, the victory. Yours next, Lam- 
bert, who when little more than a boy, at the 
head of an inconsiderable force, checked the 
march and sustained the attack of the Duke of 
Hamilton with all the flower and strength of 
Scotland in his train. Yours, Desborough, 
and yours, Whalley, whom whether I heard or 
read of fierce engagements, I always expected, 
and never failed to find, involved in their hottest 
fury. Yours, Overton, who were united with 
me many long years ago by kindred studies, 
and sweetness of manners, and a more than 

Whalley, ib. II. 135, &c. "both of very respectable extraction; 
and also by Lawrence, the ' virtuous father ' referred to in 
Milton's c Twentieth Sonnet ' and President of Cromwell's 
Council, Pickering, Sydenham, Whitlocke, Montagu, the last 
three of whom were likewise, e Lords Commissioners of our 
Treasury/ and Strickland. See Noble I. 375, 379, 385, 387, 
397, and 376 or 400. These all appear to have been of 
honourable descent, and were probably selected by their pane- 
gyrist the rather on that account, to repel the charge of ple- 
beianism so strongly urged against his party. How little could 
he foresee, that he should himself be characterised by the candid 
Whitlocke, as " one Milton, a blind man, employed in trans^ 
lating a treaty with Sweden into Latin ! " His appeal to Pos- 
terity, in his ' Ode to Rouse,' if we may interpret it some- 
what more widely than the lyrist himself intended it, appears 
to have been as necessary, as it was effectual. 



mh>ton's second defence. 187 

brother's affection. On the memorable day of 
Marston Moor, when our left wing was defeated, 
you were still to be seen by the fugitive officers, 
as they cast their eyes backward, making an 
effectual stand with your infantry in the midst 
of carnage against the assault of the enemy : 
and afterward in the Scottish war, when under 
Cromwell's directions you had taken possession 
of the Coast of Fifeshire, and opened a way 
beyond Stirling, the Scots of the West and of 
the North confessed your clemency, and the 
farthest Orkneys submitted to your power. I 
will add others, known to me by friendship or 
by fame, who have been admitted to the coun- 
sels of the state from their political renown ; 
Whitlocke, Pickering, Strickland, Syden- 
ham, Sidney (a splendid name, which I rejoice 
to find uniformly enrolled under our banners) 
Montagu, Lawrence, both men of superior 
talents and first-rate accomplishments, with 
many more, eminently approved by their ser- 
vices in the senate or in the field. To such 
men, distinguished alike by their abilities and 
their integrity, you may undoubtedly with per- 
fect propriety entrust the charge of our liber- 
ties ; nor would it indeed be easy to mention 
any, in whose hands they might be deposited 
with greater security. 

Next, if you leave the church to the church, 
and thus judiciously disburthen yourself and 
the civil magistracy in general of a concern 
forming half their encumbrance, and wholly in- 



188 milton's second defence. 

congruous with their appropriate functions ; 
not permitting the two heterogeneous autho- 
rities of Church and State to continue their 
intrigues (with an apparent, though deceitful, 
reciprocity of support, but to the actual en- 
feebling and eventual subversion of both) ; not 
allowing any constraint upon conscience — 
which however will necessarily continue as long 
as gold, the poison of the Church and the very 
quinsey of truth, shall continue to be extorted 
from the laity to pay the wages of the clergy — 
you will cast out the money-changers, and 
hucksters not of doves, but of the Dove itself; 
I mean, the Holy Spirit of God. 

Then, if as legislator you exert yourself rather 
in repealing old laws than in framing new ones, 
since it often happens in a commonwealth that 
persons have an itch for multiplying laws, like 
that which versifiers have for multiplying rhymes ; 
though laws are usually oppressive in proportion 
to their numbers, and become rather reefs than 
reliefs — you will retain merely what are neces- 
sary, and enact only such as without subjecting 
the good and the bad to the same yoke, or con- 
trolling the proper freedom of the virtuous 
while they guard against the frauds of the prof- 
ligate, animadvert solely upon crime, and pro- 
hibit nothing which is in itself lawful under 
pretext of it's occasional abuses. For the only 
object of legislation is, to hold vice in check : 
liberty is the best tutress and improver of 
virtue. 



milton's second defence. 189 

Again ; if you provide better than has yet 
been done for the education, literary and moral, 
of our youth : not deeming it equitable, that 
the teachable and the unteachable, the indus- 
trious and the indolent should be equally in- 
structed at the public expense ; but reserving 
the rewards of learning for those who have 
already merited them, for the learned : 

Farther ; if you permit the friends of free 
discussion to publish their lucubrations at their 
own hazard, without being previously subjected 
to the inspection of a superficial licenser — for 
so will Truth have the best chance of flourishing; 
and the opinion, or envy, or narrow minded- 
ness, or superstition of the half-learned will no 
longer mete the discoveries of others and science 
itself by their own measure, and deal them out 
to us at their own discretion : 

Finally ; if you shrink not from hearing any 
truth, or even any falsehood : not listening 
however to those who deem their own liberty 
established only by abridging that of others, 
and exert themselves most anxiously and vehe- 
mently in shackling not only the persons but 
the consciences of their brethren, for the pur- 
pose of introducing that most abominable of all 
tyrannies, the tyranny of their own depraved 
habits and opinions into the State and Church ; 
but constantly found on the side of those, who 
think that not only their own sect or party, 
but every citizen without distinction in every 



190 milton's second defence. 

state, has an equal right to be free — -Should 
any one account this degree of liberty adminis- 
tered through the medium of magistracy insuffi- 
cient, he appears to me a zealot of ambition 
and anarchy, rather than a lover of genuine 
liberty ; especially as a people recently con- 
vulsed by so many factions, like billows which 
retain their agitation after the tempest has sub- 
sided, are unfit for that more desirable and theo- 
retically perfect state. 

For it is of no slight moment, my fellow citu 
zens, how you yourselves are qualified either for 
the recovery, or the preservation, of your free- 
dom. Unless that freedom be such, as arms 
can neither confer, nor take away — a freedom 
which, springing from piety and justice and 
temperance and true virtue, strikes it's deep 
and pervading roots in your hearts — there will 
speedily be found some to seize without force 
that, which you boastfully profess by force to 
have acquired. Many, who have owed their 
eminence to war, have been humbled by peace. 
If, at the conclusion of your struggles, you 
neglect the pursuits of peace ; if war is to be 
your peace and liberty, your sole virtue and 
your principal glory, trust me, you will soon 
find peace your most fatal foe : peace itself will 
be your most arduous warfare, and your imagi- 
nary freedom complete servitude. If you do 
not by a faithful and sincere discharge of duty 
both toward God and man, consisting not in 



milton's second defence, 1 91 

frivolous professions but in active and effica- 
cious exertions, chase from their minds those 
errors which arise out of the ignorance of pure 
and substantial religion, you will have masters 
who will bestride your necks and your backs, 
as if you were so many beasts of burthen ; 
who will knock you down in peace to the 
highest bidder, in spite of all your victories, 
like so much mere military booty, and convert 
your ignorance and superstition to their own 
abundant advantage. If you do not wholly 
renounce avarice, ambition, and luxury, if you 
do not root out every habit of expense * from 
your entire system of domestic economy, you 
will find at home and within doors a foe more 
fierce than any, whom you ever looked for 
abroad and in the field ; nay, within your own 

* Milton's panegyrics on temperance (says Warton, in a 
Note on Eleg. vi. 55.) both in eating and drinking, resulting 
from his own practice, are frequent. See P. L. v. 5., xi. 472, 
515, 530. ; II Pens. 46., and Comus in several places. " In 
his way of living," says his Right Reverend Biographer, " he 
was an example of sobriety and temperance. He was very 
sparing in the use of wine, or strong liquors of any kind. Let 
meaner poets make use of such expedients to raise their fancy, 
and kindle their imagination. He wanted not any artificial 
spirits ; he had a natural fire, and poetic warmth enough of his 
own. He was, likewise, very abstemious in his diet; not 
fastidiously nice or delicate in the choice of his dishes, but con- 
tent with any thing that was most in season or easiest to be 
procured, eating and drinking (according to the distinction of 
the philosopher) that he might live, and not living that he 
might eat and drink." 



192 milton's second defence. 

bosoms will daily spring up in abundance a race 
of insupportable tyrants. Be it your task to 
subdue these first : this is the warfare of peace ; 
these are the toilsome though bloodless vic- 
tories, which far exceed in glory all that can be 
won in sanguinary combats. These victories 
unachieved, the foe, the tyrant opposed to you 
merely in battle, will have been partially or 
fruitlessly conquered. For if any of you deem 
it nobler, more advantageous, or more politic to 
devise subtile schemes of productive finance, to 
direct with ability the manoeuvres of an army 
or a fleet, or to display wanness in negotiating 
and judgement in concluding treaties of alli- 
ance and peace ; than to administer pure justice 
to the community, to assist the injured and the 
oppressed, and to determine the rightful claims 
of suitors with despatch, you will too late dis- 
cern your mistake, when those magnificent ac- 
complishments shall have suddenly baulked your 
expectations, while by the neglect of these infe- 
rior qualities (as you now deem them) you will 
find yourselves plunged into wretchedness and 
ruin. Even of armies and allies, upon whom you 
so confidently rely, the attachment is precarious, 
unless it proceed from the single principle of 
justice ; and opulence and honours, those objects 
of general pursuit, easily change their masters, 
deserting the slothful, and passing over to the 
virtuous, the industrious, and the indefatigable. 
Thus nation presses upon nation ; thus the 



milton's second defence. 193 

sounder part of a state displace the more cor- 
rupt, thus you overthrew the Royalists. But 
should you begin to slide into the same vices, to 
copy their profligacy and to covet their frivo- 
lities, you become Royalists yourselves, and as 
such lie open in your turn to their assault, 
or to that of others *, who relying upon the 
piety, patience, integrity, and discretion by 
which you first grew strong, will justly triumph 
over you, debilitated as you will in that case be 
by royalist luxury and excess. And then will 
you seem, sad sight ! as if God had repented of 
his kindness toward you, to have passed through 
the fire in order to perish by the smoke. You 
are not now more admired by the world, than 
you will then be despised ; and the only benefit, 
which you will be able hereafter to confer upon 
others, perhaps, not yourselves — will be, your 
furnishing a salutary proof of what great things 
real piety and virtue might have effected ; when 
even their mere counterfeits and shadows in 
your instance, through the bare operation of a 
little dextrous mockery, were able to attempt 
so nobly and to advance so far. For though by 
your unskilfulness, unsteadiness, or unworthiness 
what has already been achieved greatly may 
end disastrously, better men will not on that 
account be either authorised to dare, or disposed 
to hope, the less extensively. But if you thus 
readily sink into corruption, not even Cromwell 
himself, nor a whole family of Brutuses, sup- 



194 milton's second defence. 

posing them recalled into existence for the ex- 
periment, would either be able or willing again to 
effect your emancipation. Why, indeed, should 
any one assert your right of independent suf- 
frage, and of freely choosing whatever repre- 
sentatives you please ; if you are simply to vote 
each for the partisan of his own faction in the 
cities or in the boroughs, for him who provides 
the most expensive dinners and broaches the 
largest hogsheads of ale for his country-con- 
stituents, without the smallest regard to his 
genuine respectability ? In that case not good 
sense or high character, but faction and gor- 
mandising, would fill our senate with political 
hucksters and haberdashers from the shops, or 
with boors and clowns from the plough-tail. 
And would any person confide the care of the 
commonwealth to one, whom nobody durst 
venture to trust with the management of his 
individual fortune ? Would the revenues of the 
state be safe in the custody of those, who had 
profligately squandered their own ? Would not 
such characters speedily convert the public into 
a private purse by their gross peculations ? 
Could the office of legislating for an entire 
people with any propriety be delegated all at 
once to those, who themselves never understood 
what law and reason, or right and wrong, or 
straight and crooked, or legal and illegal meant ; 
who regard all power as consisting in outrage, 
all dignity in pride and insolence -, whose pri- 



milton's second defence. 19£ 

mary objects in parliament are an unprincipled 
zeal for their friends, and a vindictive opposition 
to their adversaries ; who procure collectorships 
of taxes and other lucrative appointments in 
the different counties for their relations and 
connexions, creatures generally of a low and 
despicable condition, but who by fraudulent 
purchases at sales of their own superintending 
divert immense sums of money from their proper 
destination, to the great injury of the common- 
wealth and the ruin of individuals, while they 
themselves suddenly emerge from rags and beg- 
gary to opulence and magnificence? Who can 
bear such pilfering slaves, fit proxies of their 
masters ; who believe, that the masters and 
patrons of those pilferers can prove the proper 
guardians of liberty : or under such trustees, 
though delegated by the different classes of 
electors to the usual number of five hundred, 
imagine himself one jot the freer ; when so 
few of the guardians, or of those whose rights 
they profess to guard, would then be found 
either able or worthy to use and to enjoy that 
freedom ? 

Neither ought I, finally, to omit stating that 
those, who are unworthy of freedom, are usually 
the foremost to treat their deliverers with in- 
gratitude. Who then, for the liberty of such a 
description of persons, would choose either to 
fight, or to incur the smallest danger ? It is 
neither proper, nor indeed possible, that such 

o 2 



196 milton's second defence. 

persons should be free. Let them prate about 
liberty, and brag of it as they will, they are 
slaves, unconsciously slaves both at home and 
abroad ; and whenever they come to know it, 
and like wild horses disdainful of the rein, 
under the impulse — not of a love of true liberty, 
for that the good man* alone can rightly seek — 
but of pride and depraved passions, endeavour 
to shake off the yoke, they may attempt it again 
and again by actual recourse to arms : but it will 
be in vain. Even if they succeed in changing their 
tyrant, they will never get rid of the tyranny. 
This was frequently the case with the old 
Romans, after they had become shattered and 
enfeebled by luxury ; and still more strikingly 
has it been illustrated in their modern successors, 
when after a long lapse of years first under the 
guidance of Crescentius Nomentanus, and sub- 
sequently under that of Nicola Rienzi, who had 
assumed the title of ' Tribune of the People,' 
they affected to renew the glory and re-establish 
the republic of ancient Rome. For know, to 
check your indignation, and prevent you from 
throwing the blame upon any one except your- 
selves, that as to be free is identical with being 

* ' Who loves that,, must first be wise and good j' 

(Sonn. xii. 12.) 
and his ( Tenure of Kings and Magistrates ; ' " Indeed, none 
can love Freedom heartily but good men. The rest love not 
Freedom, but Licence ; which never hath more scope, or more 
indulgence, than under tyrants." 



milton's second defence. 197 

pious and wise and just and temperate and 
frugal and abstinent and lastly (of course) with 
being magnanimous and brave ; so, to be the 
reverse of all these, is identical with being a 
slave. Hence, by the ordinary appointment and 
equitable retribution of Providence, the nation 
which is incapable of ruling and regulating itself, 
and has fallen under the bondage of it's own 
passions, is subjected to the domination of lords 
whom it abhors, and is not only by choice, but 
also against it's choice delivered over to ser- 
vitude. This, in fact, is sanctioned by the very 
principles of justice and nature, which ordain that 
the incompetent, whether so rendered by original 
defect or subsequent derangement of intellect, 
shall not remain at their own disposal, but be 
placed as minors under the control of others ; 
much less, shall they be appointed to manage 
the concerns either of individuals or the state. 
Ye therefore, who would remain free, either in- 
stantly exercise, or as soon as possible recover, 
your discretion : if servitude is bitter, and you 
are unwilling to swallow it, learn to obey reason, 
to assert the mastery of yourselves ; finally, to 
renounce on all sides your factions, your jea- 
lousies, your superstitions, your outrages, your 
lusts, and your rapines. So long as this remains 
unattempted, you cannot appear in the eyes 
either of God or man (even of your own deli- 
verers) fit subjects to be entrusted with liberty, 
and sovereignty, and what you so arrogantly 



198 milton's second defence. 

covet, the power of commanding others ; as 
you will in that case, like a nation in a state of 
wardship, rather require a guardian, a valiant 
and trusty superintendent of your affairs. 

For myself, whatever may be the final result, 
such efforts as in my own judgement were most 
likely to be beneficial to the commonwealth, I 
have made without reluctance, though not as I 
trust without effect. I have wielded my weapons 
for liberty not only in our domestic scene, but 
on a far more extensive theatre : that the justice 
and the principle of our extraordinary actions, 
explained and vindicated both at home and 
abroad, and confirmed in the universal appro- 
bation of the good, might be unquestionably 
established, as well for the honour of my com- 
patriots as for precedents to posterity. That 
the conclusion prove not unworthy of such a 
commencement, be it the care of those my 
compatriots to provide : it has been mine to 
deliver a testimony, I had almost said, to erect 
a monument which will not soon decay, to 
deeds of greatness and of glory almost tran- 
scending human panegyric ; and, if I have ac- 
complished nothing farther, I have assuredly 
discharged my engagement. As the bard, how- 
ever, who is denominated Epic, if he at all con- 
fine himself to the canons of his specific verse, 
proposes to himself for a subject of poetical 
embellishment, not the whole life of his hero, 
but some single action (such as the Wrath of 



milton's second defence. 199 

Achilles at Troy, the Return of Ulysses, or the 
Arrival in Italy of iEneas) and takes no notice 
of the rest of his conduct ; so will it suffice, 
either to form my vindication or to satisfy my 
duty, that I have recorded in heroic narrative 
one only of my fellow-citizens' achievements. 
The rest I omit, for who can display all the 
splendid actions of a whole people ? 

If then after such valiant exploits you fall 
into gross delinquency, and perpetuate any thing 
unw T orthy of yourselves, posterity will not fail to 
discuss and to pronounce sentence upon the dis- 
graceful deed. The foundation they will allow 
indeed to have been firmly laid, and the first, nay 
more than the first, parts of the superstructure to 
have been erected with success : but with anguish 
they will regret, that there were none found to 
carry it forward to it's completion ; that such an 
enterprise, and such virtues, were not crowned 
by perseverance ; that a rich harvest of glory, 
and abundant materials for noble achievement, 
were prepared, but that men were wanting to 
make use of them — while there wanted not a 
man to instruct, to urge, to stimulate to action ; 
a man, c who could call fame ' as well upon the 
acts as the actors, and could spread c their 
names over lands and seas' to the admiration 
of all future ages. 



MEMOIR 



CAROLINE SYMMONS, 



CAROLINE, daughter of the Rev. Charles 
Symmons, D. D. and Elizabeth his wife,* was 
born April 12, J 789. From her infancy she 
discovered indications of very extraordinary 
powers of intellect. Of these, as they existed 
in her seventh year, I had first an opportunity 
of forming an estimate ; and, ere a second 
seven were well numbered, they were no more ! 

Lt crespe chiome d'or puro lucente, 
EH lampeggiar del* angelico riso, 
Che solean Jar in terra mi paradiso, 

Poca polvere son, che nulla sente. (Petr. II. xxiv.) 

At a period of life, in which grace and 
beauty are seldom so much disclosed as to 
interest any eyes, except those of the relative 

* Sister of Rear Admiral Foley, who so highly distinguished 
himself under Lord Nelson, in the battle of the Nile, and in 
that before Copenhagen. He has since married Lady Lucy 
Fitzgerald, sister to the late Duke of Leinster. 

[Only 50 copies printed separately.] 



2 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 

or of the friend, she was strikingly endowed 
with both ; and if I had the pencil of a Rey- 
nolds or a Hoppner, I would endeavour to do 
justice to her personal charms. But those, at 
their " best state, are altogether vanity." Ut 
vultus hominum,, it a simulacra vultus imbecilla 
ac mortalia sunt ; forma mentis aterna* (Tac. 
Agric. 46.) From a subject therefore, to which 
I feel myself unequal, I turn to the display of 
her mind ; a labour indeed still more hopeless, 
if specimens of it's energies were not fortu- 
nately in existence, which will in a great mea- 
sure supersede the necessity of other descrip- 
tion. 

c Zelida,'i the first of her poems, with which I 
was favoured by her father soon after it's com- 
position, is dated November 24, 1800; and, as 
the production of a child (if she could ever, pro- 

* Yet with these perishable tokens of our regard we are de- 
lighted to honour, and for a while to preserve, the memory of 
the dear departed ; and he must be a stern philosopher, who 
can deride or dissuade their adoption. A bust by Nollekens 
was executed from a model taken from her face after her de- 
cease. It represents her features with accuracy, and is one of 
that excellent artist's best works : but to animate the marble 
with the full character and illumination of her countenance, 
would have exceeded the powers of the chissel in the hand of a 
Phidias or a Praxiteles. 

t These Poems have all been lately printed by her Father in 
an octavo volume, accompanied and enriched with his own, 
particularly a most admirable version of the fourth iEneid. 



MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 3 

perly, have been called a child) of eleven years 
of age, is surely most wonderful. What may 
perhaps excite at least equal surprise with the 
beauty of the stanzas themselves, is the selec- 
tion of the subject — " A faded rose-bush!" 
What a theme, to be chosen by a youthful 
poetess, in the full tide of health and anima- 
tion ! How sweetly characteristic of her own 
blossoming, the third verse ! 

This rose-tree once flourish' d, and sweeten' d the air ; 

Like it's blossom all lovely she grew : 
The scent of her breath, as it's fragrance, was rare ; 

And her cheeks were more fresh than it's hue. 

The fourth, how mournfully ominous of her 
decay !* 

She planted, she loved it, she dew'd it's gay head ; 

And it's bloom every rival defied. 
But, alas ! what was beauty, or virtue, soon fled : 

In spring they both blossom'd and died ! 

* What admirer of elegant modern Latinity will not here be 
forcibly reminded of Vincent Bourne's distich ! 

Stella, toscb miserere, et dum miserere, memento 
Quod brevis est cevi, quod tua forma rosa est. 
The breves rosce indeed, and the johv uKfjuu^ov fiociov xpovov, are 
but too accurately applicable, in many melancholy instances, to 
the choicest human flowers ; as the sad stories of Thomas Wil- 
liams Malkin, Joshua Rowley Gilpin, Henry Kirke White, and 
Elizabeth Smith, abundantly attest : but too often, 
hoary-headed frosts 
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose ! 

(Shaksp. Mids. Night's Dream, ii. 2.) 



4 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 

" It is, indeed (said a lady of considerable 
taste, upon reading it) little less than miracu- 
lous, and so completely unlike any other com- 
positions I have ever known, that delightful as 
I think it, I should feel almost terrified at such 
premature excellence — excellence of every 
kind ; for one knows not which most to admire, 
the genius which inspires, or the taste which 
executes!" Prophetic forebodings! too soon, 
too fully, to be realised ! 

I must not omit adding, with respect to this 
exquisite little piece, upon her father's autho- 
rity, that like all her other works, u it was in 
the strictest sense her own, having received no 
improvements or heightenings from the sugges- 
tions of any person whatever"- — a declaration 
in which I place the most implicit confidence, 
from my knowledge of both the parties con- 
cerned, neither of whom could have done so 
much violence to their nature, as to descend 
for an instant to any thing like imposition or 
deceit. 

Four sonnets, entitled, c To Fannia ;'* ' On a 
blighted Rose-bud ; ' t c Written in Winter •;* and 
* On Spring ;' and dated October 21, November 
27, 28, and 29, 1800, respectively; with a story 
in the heroic measure, c Laura, 9 consisting of 

* Her sister. 

+ These pathetic lines are to be inscribed on her tomb. 



MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 5 

more than five hundred harmonious lines, and the 
very pathetic 'Flower-Girl's Cry,'* distinguished 
the close of this brilliant year. From the pre- 
valence of wintry dates indeed throughout her 
compositions, all of which were executed in the 
interval between October and April, it may be 
inferred, that the vein of this infantine muse 
(like that of her own Milton, as represented by 
Phillips) " flowed most happily from the au- 
tumnal equinox to the vernal." 

With regard to the whole of the above-named 
effusions, if it be suggested that c the writer was 
still not within sight of her teens,' it is not in 
the slightest degree intended as an apology (for 
what is there in them to demand apology ?) but 
merely to keep in the reader's mind, what their 
singularly elegant execution would otherwise 
inevitably cause him to forget. He will be 
astonished to discover in them at once accu- 
racy of mechanical structure, flowing numbers, 
and splendid expression ; and he will not fail to 
observe, that she has gathered many a " wood- 
hare-bell," which had been overlooked by her 
taller predecessors in the same track. 

* These beautiful verses have been set to music by Mr. 
Adams, and by Miss Hague (daughter of Dr. Hague, Prof. 
Mus. Camb.) herself, at the time, scarcely exceeding the 
poetess in years. 



6 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 

The passionate attachment, which she at this 

period felt to the best English Poets, among 

whom Spenser and young Milton were her prime 

favourites, ought here to be mentioned. So 

much, indeed, was she struck with the charms 

of V Allegro and II Pe?iseroso, that to have been 

the author of them, she declared " there was 

no personal sacrifice of face or form, which she 

would have declined:" and few have had so 

much of either to offer. Nay, subsequently — 

on her returning home one morning from 

Ware's,* where she had been undergoing an 

operation — when her sufferings became the 

subject of conversation, and a tender concern 

was expressed for the possible danger to which 

the sight of the afflicted organ was exposed, 

she said with a smile, that " to be a Milton, 

she would cheerfully consent to lose both her 

eyes." 

From this feeble attempt to show her, like 

* Of this eminent man illustrious mention is made in her 
father's 'Life of Milton? where it is said, "If we were desirous 
of paying Thevenot (a physician, most honourably alluded to 
in one of Milton's letters to Leon. Philaras) a high compliment, 
we should 'call him, ' the Ware of the seventeenth century, 
and of France ! ' If the French physician actually possessed the 
skill and the benevolence of our admirable oculist, he must 
have been the ornament and the blessing of his age." (Ed. 
2d. p. 375, not.) 



MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 7 

her own rose-tree, " flourishing and sweetening 
the air," 1 am reluctantly summoned to repre- 
sent her, like it, fading away : to represent 

Gli occhi sereni, e le stellanti ciglie, 

La bella bocca angelica , di perle 

Piena e di rose e di dolci parole, 8$c. (Petr. I. clxvii.) 

gradually losing their hue and their lustre, 
though not their sweetness. For now the deli- 
cacy of her health began first to excite serious 
alarm in the breasts of her parents. Of this, a 
letter from her father, dated March 19, 1801, 
conveyed to me the mournful intelligence ; 
and, along with it, a promise (of which I did 
not, I fear, sufficiently stimulate the fulfilment) 
that the whole of her productions should, at 
some time or other, be transcribed for me, " as 
an interesting specimen of childish ability." 
Of those which reached me, the earliest is an 
* Invocation to Memory J a poem full of expres- 
sions little noticed by her friends on it's original 
appearance, February 18, 1801; but which must 
since have recurred with painful emphasis to 
their feelings ! This was followed by an ' Address 
to Content J which from her peculiar diffidence 
she would not permit to be called an ode, 
dated February 22 ; ' May -day 1 and the 6 Snow- 
drop; March 10; ' The Hare-bellS March 16; 
c a Song J April SO ; an c Invocation to Sleep,' 



8 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 

October 20; and 'a Sonnet to Mrs. Cornwall, 1 * 
November 4, 1801. Of these, the Snow-drop, 
the Song, and the Invocation to Sleep, were in- 
tended for insertion in a romance (the ' Orphan 
of the Cottage'^) which she and her elder sister 
had begun in partnership, but which has since, 
with a feeling easily conceivable, been thrown 
into the fire by the lovely survivor. 

Her last composition, 4 a Sonnet to her Aunt, 
Lady Lucy Foley, on her Birth-day? ilia tan- 
quam cycnea divince puellte vox, was written in 
February, 1803. Before the end of this month, 
a cough, accompanied with fever, had reduced 
her to the lowest stage of weakness, without 
however in the slightest degree affecting either 
her spirits or her temper. By her father, who 
with his excellent and beloved wife hung over 
her sick bed in the most palpitating state of 
anxiety, I was informed (in a letter, dated 
April 17) that the nature of her complaint was 
ascertained to be pulmonary ;t a conclusion in 

* In the concluding couplet of this last exquisite production, 
she had the candor to reject an alteration of one line proffered 
by her father, on the plea of having the whole fourteen her 
own j modestly remarking at the same time, that ' some faults 
would stamp the composition as more legitimately hers.' 

■j- It was not, however, the common phthisis, but the catar- 
rhal fever (generally known by the name of the ' Influenza') 
which proved fatal to numbers in the early months of the year 
1803. 



MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 9 

no respect weakened by the frequent altern- 
ations of better and worse, so generally charac- 
teristic of affections of the lungs. Those who, 
like myself, have ever lost a dear friend by the 
mining of a similar assailant, will not need to 
be told what were now the reciprocations of 
hope and fear in the hearts of her surrounding 
relations. The low and languid morning, so 
often unexpectedly following a day of cheer- 
fulness and a night of repose, the delusive glow 
of the cheek, the debility and emaciation, and 
above all, the importunate and unrelenting 
cough — as exhibited to me in the last days of a 
father, to whose judicious tenderness and self- 
denying liberality, under God, I owe all my 
blessings — will never be erased from my re- 
membrance : 

O thou, my mingled joy and woe,, 
Sweet source of every bursting sigh 

Who bidd'st these silent sorrows flow — 
Hail ! heaven-born soothing Memory ! 

(Caroline Symmons.) 

Now might have been repeated over her, 
with well-deserved and prophetical panegyric, 
the well-known chef d'ceuvre of Petrarch : 

Chi vuol veder quantunque pub natura 
E'l del tra noi 9 venga a mirar costei, 
Ch'e sola un sol ; non pur agli occhi miei 9 

Ma al mondo cieco <he virtu non cura* 



10 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 

E venga tosto ; perche Morte Jura 
Prima i migliori, e lascia star i rei. 
Questa, aspettata al regno degli Dei, 

Cosa bella mortal passa e non dura. 

Vedra, s 9 arriva a tempo, ogni virtute, 
Ogni bellezza, ogni real costume 

Giunti in un corpo con mirabil tempre : 
Allor dira eke mie rime son mute, 

L 9 ingegno qffeso dal soverchio lume — 

Ma, se piu tarda, avra da pianger sempre.* 

(I. ccx.) 

On the first of June, the terrible blow, which 

* Of tills inimitable sonnet I have attempted a translation, 
which it perhaps requires some apology for subjoining to such a 
masterpiece of elegance and pathos, giunti in un corpo, even in 
a note : 

Stranger ! whose curious glance delights to trace 
What heaven and nature join'd to frame most rare, 
Here view mine eyes' bright sun ; a sight so fair, 

That purblind worlds, like me, enamour'd gaze. 

But speed thy step ; for Death with rapid pace 
Pursues the best, nor deems the bad his care : 
Call'd to the skies, through yon blue fields of air, 

On buoyant plume the cherub-child obeys. 

Then haste, and mark in one rich form combined — 
And while surpassing lustre pains the eye, 

Chide the weak efforts of my trembling lay — 
Each charm of person, and each grace of mind : 
But if thy lingering foot my call deny, 

Grief and repentant shame shall mourn the brief delay, 



MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 1 1 

had been so long suspended, fell, and her gentle 
spirit " returned unto God who gave it." 

Early, bright, transient, chaste— as morning dew, 
She sparkled, was exhaled, and went to heaven. 

(Young, Night v.) 

Another touch or two of the pencil, and I 
have done. 

To her extraordinary charms and talents, she 
united virtues almost as extraordinary ; particu- 
larly those of exquisite but well-regulated sen- 
sibility, of active humanity, of diffidence which 
shrunk from applause, and of piety, which like 
the cypress ever-verdant, seemed to flourish 
with augmented vigour upon the borders of the 
grave. Those will be best illustrated by two or 
three little anecdotes ; which however, inde- 
pendently of their present application, deserve 
to be recorded, were it only as they display at 
a very early age an uncommon degree of re- 
flexion and right feeling. 

One of her uncles, on his return from France 
(where he had spent some time, during the first 
period of the disastrous revolution in that 
country) presented to her, then quite a child, a 
national cockade. This she wore with apparent 
pleasure, until the King was put to death ; when 
she instantly carried it to her father, declaring, 
that 6 she would never again wear the colours 



12 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS- 

of a people, who had committed so cruel a 
deed.' 

In a more advanced stage of her short life, 
her father, to show his high approbation of her 
poetry and of her general excellence, addressed 
her in a sonnet,* which he inscribed in a copy 
of his c Sicilian Captive,' and gave to her, in the 
presence of his whole family. As soon as the 
praise caught her eye, she closed the book; 
and, with a countenance which " spoke un- 
utterable things," returned it to the giver, to 
be withdrawn from the observation of her bro- 
thers, whose sensibilities she feared might be 
hurt by the preference thus obviously assigned 
to herself. 

Not many months before her decease, a beg- 
gar-woman in the neighbourhood, who had 
long been the object of her secret beneficence, 
through her interest with some of the managers 

* The drama, to which these tender lines were prefixed, in 
the better days of our English Melpomene would not have 
been confined to the shelf of English classics : but 

migravit ah aure voluptas 

Omnis ad incertos oculos — (Hor. Ep. II. i. 188.) 
And the meteor-glare of a masque or a procession, a stuffed 
elephant, a Newfoundland dog, or a horse in mock convulsions 
is preferred even to Shakspeare himself. I am prevented, how- 
ever, from attempting to do justice to the author of the e Sicilian 
Captive? by the recollection that these pages will pass under his 
eye on their way to the press. 



MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 13 

of the Westminster Hospital received for one of 
her children, which had suffered by an accident, 
support and medical assistance. In conse- 
quence of not seeing for some time her youth- 
ful benefactress, the poor creature was induced 
to inquire of the servants about her ; and, on 
being made acquainted with her loss, burst into 
a violent fit of crying, and betrayed almost 
frantic grief. These bounties, it appeared, the 
little angel had furnished from a small fund of 
her own ; and, when her purse failed, had (fre- 
quently with her own hands) supplied the de- 
ficiency from her father's kitchen. But what 
distinguished her charity, and indeed her whole 
conduct, from that of most other children was, 
the principle from which they proceeded, and 
from which they derived the steadiness and the 
uniformity of system. This it is the parent's 
rt delightful task," — in the present instance 
how admirably executed ! — to infuse into their 
offspring : not cherishing in them the capricious 
self-indulgence of the sentimentalist, or the me- 
chanical generosity of the spendthrift ; but 
from their earliest dawn of reason proposing to 
them, as the invariable object of all their alms 
and actions, the fulfilment of the will of God. 
With the five talents dispensed to Caroline 
Symmons it does not, probably, fall to the lot of 
one in a whole age or country to be entrusted ; 



14 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 

but all may be rendered capable of enjoying, 
and of diffusing, their maximum of happiness, 
by the sedulous improvement of whatever smaller 
number they have received. It should also be 
recollected, as the compensation of their infe- 
riority, that with great abilities are inseparably 
connected great duties and great dangers : that 
their functions are arduous, and their respon- 
sibilities alarming : and, not to mention what 
Waller represents as 

The common fate of all things rare, 
How small a part of time they share, 
Who are so wondrous sweet and fair ! 

that the largus et exundans ingenii fons* c the 
prodigal and overflowing spring of genius,' even 
without this perhaps superstitious notion of a 
premature exhaustion, is still not one of the 
boons (if we may trust the records of history) 
which a father should importune heaven to 
bestow upon his child. 

To return. Not less remarkable than the 
beauties of her person, the elegance of her 

* Juv. Sat. X. 119; a poem once recommended by a Bishop 
to his clergy in a pastoral letter, and for it's vivid imagery and 
it's aweful sublimity perhaps unparallelled. What could be done 
however, in the way of imitation, has been done by our own 
Johnson in his 'Vanity of Human Wishes,' in which the whole 
passage upon the perils of literary eminence in particular, 

* When first the college-rolls/ ' &c. 
is singularly impressive. 



MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. IS 

taste, the strength of her understanding, and 
the goodness of her heart, was her steadfast and 
humble piety. Through the whole of her ill- 
ness, she was constant in her devotions $ and, 
when the extreme weakness and emaciation 
occasioned by her malady made the posture of 
kneeling (long painful) at length impracticable, 
she deeply regretted the circumstance, as dis- 
qualifying her for offering her adorations in a 
suitable manner. With such a disposition, it 
will not be matter of surprise that her beha- 
viour, at all times exemplary, in the hours im- 
mediately preceding her dissolution, should 
have been admirable. Not a single complaint 
fell from her lips. Even on the last morning of 
her earthly existence, when she had expressed 
to her maid a wish to die, she instantly cor- 
rected herself, and said, " No, it is sinful to 
wish for death ; I will not wish for it." 

She was, in short, as pure a character as per- 
haps has ever appeared ; and discovered, in the 
short space of fourteen years, a very singular 
combination of intellectual and moral excel- 
lence. But she is gone from this valley of 
grief to that better world, where there shall be 
" no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain : for to 
her the former things are passed away." Res- 
cued from the dangers and the evils of this pro- 



— 



16 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 

bationary state, she is surely in her fate, as she 
was in her faculties and her accomplishments, 
most enviable. — Alas ! I speak — as a philoso- 
pher : but, when I turn my eyes lo my own 
little prattling daughters, I shudder at the un- 
certainty of fate ; I mingle my tears with those 
of my friend ; I feel — as a man. 



A 

DISSERTATION 

On the best Means of civilising the Subjects of 
the British Empire in India, and of diffusing 
the Light of the Christian Religion through- 
out the Eastern World. Originally Dedicated 
to the Right Hon. Lord Teignmouth.* 



MISERERE INOPUM SOCIORUM. 

Jur. viii. 89. 



IN entering upon a discussion like the present, 
professing to suggest plans for the immediate 
improvement of sixty or seventy millions of 
people, and the contingent salvation of perhaps 
nearly one half of the human species, the 
mind pauses under the magnitude of the sub- 
ject ; and is struck with awe, as she con- 
templates the grandeur of the scene spread 
before her. We view a country, which for 

* If the Author could have induced himself to print two 
Letters, which he received from the Right Hon, Lord Teign- 
mouth, recently Governor General of India, and Charles 
Grant j Esq. at that time Chairman of the East India Company, 
subsequent to the Adjudication made by the three Academical 
Judges (Dr. Seale, Dr. Jowett, and Mr. OutramJ he feels 
assured, that his readers would not charge him with presump- 
tion in giving to the Public a Dissertation, which they ho- 
noured with their most decided preference, 

A 

[Only 50 copies printed separately.] 



2 A DISSERTATION ON 

extent, fertility, and population baffles the cold 
conceptions of European fancy : a country, of 
which in ancient times the looms supplied 
splendid apparel, and the fields abundant and 
permanent subsistence, when the skin-clad 
savages of Europe sought their precarious diet 
from the woods; and which, regarded in it's 
modern fortunes, has been the prey of succes- 
sive hordes of fierce or rapacious adventurers, 
and the dungeon or the grave of it's afflicted 
inhabitants. Confining our observation how- 
ever principally to it's existing state, we see 
this noble region, by the almost-continuous 
ravages of eight hundred years, reduced to the 
lowest degree of political wretchedness : with 
it's manufactures nearly ruined, and with a 
small portion only of it's exuberant soil brought 
into rude cultivation by a degraded and starv- 
ing peasantry ; while the rest of it's surface is 
abandoned to the beasts of the forest, or to the 
luxuriance of rank and useless vegetation. 
With reference to it's religious condition, we 
behold it divided between the followers of 
Brahma and Mohammed, separated indeed 
from each other by a long intervening space, 
but aliens alike from Christ, and strangers to 
the Covenant of grace. Of these erroneous and 
discordant religionists, the latter, with the usual 
composition of bigots, are a blind and bloody 
sect j making the diffusion of their faith a 



CIVILISING INDIA. 3 

pretext of conquest, and presenting to their 
captives the horrid alternative of conversion or 
extermination, the Koran or the sword. The 
former, on the contrary, are a mild and quiet 
people, free from the stronger tumults of the 
passions, with considerable powers of intellect 
and some excellences of feeling ; and, above 
all, distinguished by a pertinacious adherence to 
customs, manners, and opinions, of which his- 
tory records no parallel, and which has alike 
withstood the sap of time, the attractions of 
novelty, and the fury of persecution : on the 
other hand, too generally debased by servility, 
indolence, and avarice ; indifferent to religion 
in her pure and abstract character, as influenc- 
ing the heart and regulating the conduct ; but 
enslaved by a wily priesthood, and abused by 
an absurd superstition — a superstition made 
aweful by the magnificence of it's temples and 
ceremonies, and strong by it's subtile intermix- 
ture in the concerns of common life; and a 
priesthood, enriched by the pious prodigality of 
pilgrims and of princes, upheld by the subordi- 
nation of a well-constructed hierarchy, and 
protected by the accumulated reverence of an 
unascertained series of centuries. 

To dispel this mass of darkness, which hangs 
over the dreary recesses of Mecca and Benares, 
is above the operation of mere human power. 
The light, and the first impulse, must proceed 

a 2 



4 A DISSERTATION ON 

from above. But, impressed with the full im- 
portance of the object, we must not be deterred 
by the arduousness of it's achievement. We 
must reflect, that with God all things are possi- 
ble ; that his Providence generally condescends 
to make use of man, as his principal instrument ; 
and that even out of the mouth of babes and 
sucklings he can perfect praise. We must 
remember, likewise, that Christ himself commit- 
ted the treasure of the Gospel to earthen ves- 
sels ; that it's propagation was his final com- 
mand to his disciples ; and that the least *qf all 
seeds, by his blessing, may become a tree, so that 
the fowls of the air shall come and lodge in it's 
branches. 

These arguments would press powerfully upon 
virtuous minds, in a question respecting a 
population like that of India, even if it were 
unconnected with them by any nearer ties than 
those of a common nature. But, with us, the 
hour of such honourable generosity is past; 
and we have no longer the option of exercising a 
disinterested benevolence. India is now identi- 
fied with Great Britain. Long endeared to us by 
the value of her traffic, which has always formed 
an aera in the prosperity of those nations by 
whom it has been successively possessed, she has 
lately, from the growing incumbrances of our 
finance and the unsettled condition of Europe, 
become vital to our existence. In the debates. 



CIVILISING INDIA. 5 

which twenty years ago convulsed our senate, 
however widely the contending parties differed 
about the mode of administering the affairs of 
our Asiatic empire, they concurred in asserting 
it's importance. By their unanimous voice 
India was represented as the chief source of 
strength to our navy, and of wealth to our 
exchequer : and the events of the last twenty 
years have added irresistible force to their 
testimony ! 

But, whatever maybe her claims upon our 
gratitude, upon our justice her demands must 
be recognised as clear and peremptory. In our 
intercourse with this unhappy country, it must 
be acknowledged that we have hitherto been 
anxious to increase the number, rather than to 
promote the welfare, of our subjects : and there 
are upon record, it may be feared, not only in 
the memories of men but in the eternal register 
of Heaven, numerous instances of mercantile 
and military oppression. Whether the sword 
however has been often drawn without cause, 
or peculation has often spread it's ravages 
without redress, is not within our present pur- 
pose to inquire : but, on the most favourable 
determination of this question, it will well 
become us to examine how we may best com- 
pensate the evils which we have occasioned, 
allowing them to have been only such as follow 



6 A DISSERTATION ON 

occasionally perhaps in the train of ordinary 
traffic, and always in that even of justifiable 
war. 

And at what period, more favourable to our 
views of benevolence or of gratitude, can we 
commence this mighty attempt? Our recent 
acquisitions of territory, by widening the sphere 
of our action and extending the conciliation of 
our manners, equally at least we trust with the 
terror of our arms, considerably enhance the 
probability of success. The Genius of Investi- 
gation has burst the fetters imposed upon him 
by commercial and professional engagements. 
India has thrown open to him the temple of 
Sanscrit literature, hitherto trodden only by 
the profoundest of her scholars and the holiest 
of her priests : to his ardent researches has 
been disclosed the venerable code, which com- 
bines and regulates her religious and her secular 
duties ; and Brahmins themselves have remitted 
their habitual jealousy of the profane intruders 
of Europe. We now know wherein resides 
their strength, and what is of still more utility, 
their weakness. The fatal lock of Brahma is 
discovered, and the shears are committed to 
our hands. 

But in an enterprise of such momentous 
consequence, where the smallest divergency in 
the outset may lead to inextricable error, every 



CIVILISING INDIA. 7 

step must be guarded with the most vigilant 
circumspection. The rooted attachment indeed 
of the Hindus to the customs of their ancestors, 
which has hitherto withstood the violence of the 
Arabian and the intrigues of the Romish church, 
is now slowly giving way to our civil influence ; 
but, though they have ceased to be inflexible, 
they are yet far from pliancy. They throng 
around our missionaries, it is true, with acknow- 
ledgements of their ignorance, and with en- 
treaties for instruction ; they admit the contra- 
dictions of their own scriptures, and solicit 
copies of ours : but arguing from other parts of 
their conduct, from their readiness to propose 
quibbles and to detect flaws, from their ordi- 
nary inattention to what is delivered and their 
subsequent dismission of it from their minds, 
the preacher finds it difficult to pronounce, 
whether he be not principally indebted for his 
audience to the levity or the curiosity of the 
individuals who compose it. In a single inter- 
view, they listen, they hesitate, they believe : 
they depart, they doubt, they forget. 

Admitting, however, that they have at length 
begun to perceive the gross vanity of their tra- 
ditions, the palpable absurdity of their ceremo- 
nies, and the insulting despotism of their priests, 
yet much time will still be requisite for the 
eradication of a system, which for many ages 



A DISSERTATION ON 



has possessed and flourished in the soil. Not 
only must the jungle be cleared of it's giant 
trunks, but the ground itself must be tempered 
and mellowed by proper culture, before the good 
seed can be committed to it's bosom with any 
prospect of successful vegetation. Without 
previous preparation, to throw the full blaze of 
Christianity on the feeble vision of India, 
plunged as she has been for centuries in the 
more-than-Egyptian darkness of her horrid idola- 
try would realise the sublime description of the 
poet, when he represents the Monarch of the 
Shades as trembling, 



{AYI Oi U7T£0U£ 



Tuioiv «i/appn^£;£ TLq<t&i$oiuv ei/oa^Owv, 

But here a preliminary question arises, whe- 
ther civilisation and conversion should advance 
together ; or, if one of them must go before, 
to which of them should be assigned the pre- 
cedence. The claim of each to preference is 
supported by specious arguments, and high 
authorities. In behalf of the prior introduction 
of Christianity it has been plausibly contended, 
that c refinement is usually accompanied by a 
train of vices, in their nature most hostile to the 
spirit of the Gospel : that religion alone pro- 



CIVILISING INDIA. 9 

duces and establishes those moral habits, which 
lead directly to intellectual and social excel- 
lence ; that to temperance she gives the stabi- 
lity of principle, and to industry the incentive 
of duty ; and that these two virtues, when 
unsupported by her invigorating influence, are 
incapable of resisting the allurements of indo- 
lence and the impetuosity of passion/ On the 
other hand it is asserted, with perhaps more of 
logical and historical induction, that c Christi- 
anity pre-supposes the existence of refined, 
rather than of savage vices $ that industry and 
temperance, though from religion they may 
derive their ulterior and more weighty sanctions, 
powerfully recommend themselves by the health 
which they preserve, and by the comforts 
which they bestow : that the Gospel was the 
last of a series of dispensations, each adapted to 
the increased civilisation of it's respective 
period ; and was itself revealed amidst the high 
lustre of the Augustan age, when Rome had 
comprehended within the pale of her dominion 
the whole of the polished world : and that, even 
subsequently to it's first disclosure, various mea- 
sures of instruction were studiously accommo- 
dated to the varying degrees of ignorance, 
which prevailed among the objects of it's 
author's divine mission/ These, however, are 
investigations more strictly applicable to the 



10 A DISSERTATION ON 

sluggards of Greenland, or to the sensualists of 
the South Sea, than to the partially-refined 
subjects of our Indian empire. To the latter if 
we impart the great and uncontroverted doc-* 
trines of our faith in luminous arrangement 
and perspicuous language, the communication 
will assist our temporal efforts in diffusing among 
them the blessings of science and civilisation ; 
while these, in return, will prepare their minds 
for the reception of the deeper and more 
mysterious truths of Christianity. 

A second doubt occurs, with regard to the 
mode of conducting our projected enterprise. 
The Baptist-Ministers in Bengal, objecting to 
the dispersion of our teachers, have asserted 
(and, apparently, with much truth) that c more 
is lost by the feebleness, than is gained by the 
extent, of the assault. Dum singidi pugnant, 
universi vincuntur. By the concentration of 
our energies the light of the Gospel, they 
contend, might be effectually thrown upon some 
single province ; and would thence emanate, as 
from a new point of radiance, to illuminate the 
rest.' This reasoning, which they have confined 
to the provinces of Hindostan, may confidently 
be extended to the kingdoms of Asia. If Tan- 
jore, which from the indefatigable toils of it's apo- 
stles appears to be the most favourably disposed 
for the reception of the Christian doctrines, would 



CIVILISING INDIA, It 

advantageously receive and transmit the result 
of our united labours, India itself, on the same 
ground of argument we may infer, will become 
the centre of a wider sphere of conversion ; the 
focus, whence future missionaries may diverge 
to traverse the snows of Tibet, the wall of China, 
and the recesses of Japan, Whatever, therefore, 
is here suggested upon this subject, will be 
referred principally to Hindostan ; a region, to 
the greatest part of which we have entire access, 
while the gates of the other oriental empires are 
either cautiously opened for our introspection, or 
rigidly barred against us by the jealousy ©f 
commerce or of power. As it has been satisfac- 
torily proved that the religions of Buddha, 
Brahma, and Fo are only the varieties of^a 
superstition, in it's more permanent characte- 
ristics specifically the same, the means most 
suitable for the introduction of knowledge and 
true religion among our own subjects would, 
with a few slight modifications (to be deter- 
mined by local, and temporary, circumstances) 
be the best adapted to diffuse these inestimable 
blessings over the other portions of the Eastern 
world. 

L To communicate the leading and indispu- 
table truths of Christianity seems to be the first 
great object, which solicits our attention, 
When this is well accomplished, the execution 



22 A DISSERTATION ON 

of the rest will be comparatively easy. We 
must not, however, blind ourselves to the diffi- 
culty of the undertaking. To conduct it to a 
full and prosperous issue, we must studiously 
pre-concert and digest our plans. We must 
liberally allow for the differences of climate, of 
manners, and of laws : our conduct must be 
distinguished by it's candor, it's tolerance, and 
it's moderation. In our chief adversaries, the 
Imams and the Brahmins, we must anticipate 
the pertinacity induced by interest, by preju- 
dice, and by habit : in our hearers we must be 
prepared to meet languor, or perversertess ; in 
our converts schism, or apostasy. We must 
level our topics to the apprehensions, and our 
arguments to the weaknesses, of our followers : 
while we convince their judgement, we must 
impress their imagination : the ritual, which 
we prescribe, must be perspicuously constructed 
and punctually observed : the truths, which 
we inculcate, must be delivered with colloquial 
plainness and systematical precision ; must bor- 
row strength from every fair collateral expe- 
dient, and derive illustration from every domestic 
and familiar incident of Indian life. 

To descend into more minute detail. It has 
been recommended by the immortal Sir William 
Jones, as the only human mode of introducing 
Christianity into Hindostan, that " one of the 



CIVILISING INDIA. 13 

"Evangelists, with selections from the Jewish 
Prophets (from those parts of them especially, 
which are made the more immediate subjects of 
Gospel-reference) should be translated into the 
Sanscrit and the Persian languages : that to this 
should be annexed a simple statement of evi- 
dence, proving the long interval between the 
delivery of the predictions and their accomplish- 
ment; and that the whole should, then, be 
quietly thrown into circulation among the well- 
educated natives/' The experience, however, 
of the first propagators of the Gospel affords 
abundant testimony, that a vital and practical 
religion does not usually find among the well- 
educated classes of the community it's ear- 
liest supporters. To dissent upon almost any 
subject (and, more particularly, upon one 
connected with the literature of the East) from 
the revered authority of One, in whom it is 
questionable whether genius or industry or 
philanthropy was the prevailing excellence, 
presents the appearance at least, as the writer 
is fully aware, of considerable presumption. 
But Socrates and Plato must give way to truth; 
and when he recollects the importunate inqui- 
ries of the Jewish infidels respecting the Messiah, 
Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, 
believed on him ? he cannot but conclude with 
the Apostle Paul that, in the original adoption 



14 A DISSERTATION ON" 

of a divine faith, the wise, the mighty, and the 
noble are frequently preceded by the foolish, the 
base, and the despised. The truths in fact, of 
which we are speaking, are such that, whatever 
deference may on other occasions be justly due 
to the teacher from his illiterate audience, no 
particular condescension can in the present 
instance be required. Plain in their own nature, 
they are as obvious to the reason of the peasant, 
as to that of the philosopher. In addition then 
to the above documents, we should probably 
find it serviceable to our great cause to distri- 
bute short and approved treatises in the popular 
dialects of India : such, for example, as that 
of Leslie containing his ' Four Marks/ with a 
particular application to the legends of her 
multiform Vishnu ; a brief abstract of the 
Scripture History, including a comparison of the 
vicious deities of Hindostan with the divine 
objects of Christian worship ; Paley's chapter on 
Prophecy, some perspicuous forms of Catechism,. 
a few simple Hymns adapted to the favourite 
national airs of the Hindus, and such other 
tracts on the absurdities of their traditions and 
ceremonies, and the relatively-light burthen of 
the Gospel, as might be cheaply circulated and 
easily perused. Among a people proverbially 
indolent, ' a great book ■ would certainly be c a 
great evil.* Bulk, at all times an equivocal 



CIVILxSING INDIA. 15 

criterion of value, would present an insur- 
mountable obstacle to the first step of the lazy 
and frivolous Asiatic : and a trite essay in duo- 
decimo might attract and secure that attention, 
which would shrink from the voluminous 
eloquence of a Taylor or a Barrow. 

It must not be dissembled however that, 
before we can expect an adequate field for the 
exertions of our Missionaries, the predominancy 
of the Hindu priesthood must be destroyed. 
So long as the Brahmins continue to be neces- 
sary to all the ordinary concerns of civil life ; 
so long as they are privileged to direct the dress, 
prescribe the food, regulate the marriages, and 
determine the professions, of their followers; 
and authoritatively hold over the disobedient 
the terrors of expulsion from their class — a 
penalty, involving in the irretrievable* loss 
of family, friends, and honour, a degree of su£ 
fering, which Rome in her proudest hour was 
never able to inflict — their subversion is impos- 
sible. Dreadful sentence ! Against him, who 
is authorised to pronounce it, what heart can be 
so hardy as to rebel ! 

This distribution then into Castes, even if ifc 

* By Verelst, indeed, we are informed, that a person once 
degraded may be restored — by the general suffrage of his 
own Caste, the sanction of the Brahmins, and the authority of 
the supreme Civil Power. Hopeless concurrence I 



16 A DISSERTATION ON 

be not rigidly precise, as from it's hostility to 
the strongest principles of our nature and from 
the varying accounts of travellers some have ven- 
tured to surmise, must likewise be done away; or 
it will fatally disappoint, not only our hopes of 
converting the Hindus, but also our more hum- 
ble project of promoting their civil improvement. 
While the moral principle is sapped by an 
endless succession of sacrifices and penances 
and lustrations, the social feeling is annihilated 
by unnatural distinctions, and the intellectual 
spark extinguished by a total want of nutrition 
and encouragement. Yet monstrous as this 
abuse is, it is so artfully blended with the whole 
irame of their superstition, that they must exist 
or perish together. That they cannot be sub- 
dued by the direct assault either of arguments 
or of arms, if under any circumstances the 
latter could be employed as legitimate auxilia- 
ries, has been fully proved not only by our own 
recent experience, but by the concurrent testi- 
mony of the ancient records of India. Our 
experiment, indeed, has hitherto been tried on a 
very limited scale, but with unremitting zeal 
and perseverance. The members of the Bap- 
tist-Mission have been indefatigable in preach- 
ing, translating, printing, and disseminating the 
doctrines, simple and mysterious, of general 
Christianity ; yet the number of natives con- 



CIVILISING INDIA. 17 

verted is still less than that of the years employed 
in their conversion : and the annals of Hindos- 
tan, in their relation of the effects of Moham- 
medan ferocity, abundantly evince that the 
compendious logic of the sword has not been 
productive of a more favourable result. Satisfied 
that the Deity not only tolerates but approves a 
variety of religions, on the same principle upon 
which the painter multiplies his figures and 
colours, and the gardener diversifies his grounds 
with intermingled shrubs and flowers, the 
votaries of Brahma inflexibly resist all change ; 
and reject not less firmly the preacher of 
other opinions, than the proselyte to their 
own. Upon a population thus prejudiced, 
destitute of all masculine energy of intel- 
lect, yet superior to the fear of tortures and 
of death, how little can reason, how little 
(were it justifiable to use it) could violence 
prevail ?* 

* Force, indeed, is wholly out of the question. Non est 
religionis cogere religionem, quae sponte suscipi debet non vi 9 
said a Father of the early Christian Church* This is a maxim 
of universal application ; but with reference to Hindostan, and 
to our connexion with it, it is enforced by numberless pruden- 
tial and political considerations. To act, indeed,, upon the nega- 
tive of them (if with thirty thousand Europeans, amidst twice 
as many millions of natives, we could for a moment entertain 
so wild a project) would be as hopeless, as it would be barba- 
rous. They, who have steadfastly grasped their faith under the 

B 



18 A DISSERTATION ON 

What reason however cannot directly achieve, 
may often be not less honourably accomplished 
by circuitous methods. Hdc non successit, alia 
adgrediemur via* The faith in the Vedas, which 
the Hindu will not surrender to our arguments, 
may be gradually directed to the events of an 
authentic revelation : his attachment to his own 
ceremonies may be weakened, when he observes 
the greater simplicity and pertinency of ours : 
the auspicious effects of our civil institutions 
may enhance his estimation of those, which are 
religious ; and when in the fane of genuine 
Christianity he discovers neither the sanguinary 
intolerance of the mosque, nor the gross impo- 
sition of the pagod, the evidences of the Gospel 
may engage and secure his attention. If to 
these oblique influences we add, what of all the 
indirect means of conversion is perhaps the most 
efficacious, the c visible rhetoric' of a good life ; 
if we solicit the confidence of the lower and 
more popular Castes by our kindness, their 
respect by our proficiency in sciences and arts, 
and their gratitude by our communication of 
those benefits ; we may then, in our struggles 
with their spiritual leaders, advance to more 
avowed and more active hostility. It will not 
require much depth of research to detect, nor in 

keen edge of the Arabian cimiter, would cling to it with equal 
pertinacity amidst the fires of the Inquisition. 






CIVILISING INDIA. 19 

the present state of our Eastern power much 
intrepidity to expose, their gainful hypocrisy 
Without incurring the imputation of impru- 
dent daring, we may point out to their followers 
where they lie, couched like their own tigers, 
and ready to spring upon their devoted prey* 
From the thickets of their superstition, we may 
trace them to the recesses of their sensuality ; 
from their savage obsequies on the banks of the 
Holy River, or their murtherous processions in 
honour of Jagrenaut, to the voluptuous interiors 
of Chillambrum or Seringham. We may fear- 
lessly open their legal code, with the certainty 
of finding in every page the testimonies of 
their crafty and interested legislation. Here 
we may lay our ringer on the presumptuous 
passage, in which they pronounce themselves a 
portion of the Godhead, c invulnerable, inviola- 
ble, and immortal:' there we may point to the 
partial paragraph, by which they are permitted 
to descend from their sacerdotal eminence, to 
occupy lucrative or honourable stations in mili- 
tary life. Documents of their avarice, ambition, 
and self-indulgence will every where press upon 
our notice. By thousands of individual refe- 
rences, we may prove that they are not of that 
superior and unearthly nature, which they arro- 
gate : we may excite a contempt of them, by 
displaying the absurd and gratuitous incarnations 

b 2 



20 A DISSERTATION ON 

of their favourite Deity : we may expose them 
to suspicion by commenting on the privilege, 
reserved to themselves, of reading and inter- 
preting their Sacred Books ; a privilege, guarded 
by the infliction of severe penalties upon those 
of the lower Castes, by whom it is infringed. 

If we can once succeed in drawing our 
hearers by the talisman of knowledge from the 
fatal circle, within which for so long a time they 
have been inclosed, the spell will be dissolved. 
Anxious to learn, and capable of learning, they 
will advance with accelerated speed in the paths 
of science and religion. The advantages of 
British refinement, and the blessings of Protest- 
ant Christianity, will open on their view. From 
our commerce they will obtain affluence, from 
Our manners civilisation, and from our instruction 
manliness and independence. A certain portion 
of our spirit of freedom will be diffused, notwith- 
standing all the disadvantages of climate, over 
the plains of Hindostan ; and the divine genius 
of the Gospel will confer emancipation on 
millions, who are now groaning under the heavy 
yoke of Brahminical superstition. 

In our first administration however of bap- 
tism, we must be vigilantly cautious not to fall 
into the error, which proved fatal to the labours 
of the first Missionaries in the West. When 
through levity or carelessness, influenced by 



CIVILISING INDIA. 21 

the example of their own chiefs or instigated by 
their dread of the Spanish power, the Ameri- 
cans crowded to the standard of the cross \ they 
were admitted by thousands, in a state of gross 
ignorance respecting the mysteries or the duties 
of their new faith, and secretly cherishing an 
undiminished affection for their paternal creed, 
into the Christian sanctuary, In consequence 
of this blind zeal of proselyting, " the religious 
institutions of their ancestors," as we are 
informed by the elegant historian of those coun- 
tries, " are still remembered and held in honour 
both in Mexico and Peru ; and, whenever 
they think themselves out of reach of inspection 
by the Spaniards, they assemble and celebrate 
jtheir idolatrous rites. "* With understandings 
but little cultivated, and in their range of obser- 
vation confined almost wholly to objects of 
sense, the natives of the East will at first perhaps 
find the sublime and spiritual doctrines of 
Christianity, even when separated from it's 
mysteries, not easily to be apprehended. Sel- 
dom reflecting upon what is past, or antici- 
pating what is to come, they will only be tran- 
siently affected by the magnificent futurity, 
which our religion displays. The Hindu, with 
his habitual negligence, will soon dismiss it 

* Robertson's ' History of America/ VIIJ. 



22 A DISSERTATION ON 

from his mind ; while the Mohammedan will 
shrink from it's purity, and return to wallow in 
the c sensual sty' of his licentious prophet. 
These conclusions are fully confirmed by the 
experience of the recent Asiatic missions. The 
initiatory rite of the Gospel has, therefore, been 
judiciously suspended over the head of the new 
Catechumen, till his sincerity is approved by a 
steady noviciate; and a creditable indifference 
to the parade of numerous converts has been 
observed, while the Papal Missionaries in China 
are inscribing upon the forehead of unenlight- 
ened myriads the mark of their anti-christian 
Church. 

II. Neither must we be more sanguine in our 
hopes of rapidly improving the civil condition 
of our Indian empire. To this, indeed, refe- 
rence has already been incidentally made, in 
consequence of the close union of the spiritual 
and temporal interests of every community. 
Righteousness exalteth a nation. Sympathising 
completely in the end, they harmonise through- 
out the course of their progress. Danger is 
always involved in sudden changes of system of 
every kind ; and plethora is found to be as fatal, 
in it's consequences, as atrophy. It is by a 
slow development, that the mind expands for 
the reception of new modes of thinking. Opi- 



CIVILISING INDIA. 23 

nion, which alone can give permanency to 
regulation, is of tardy growth ; and to trans* 
plant the oak of the British forest, in it's mature 
state, to the banks of the Ganges would be a 
feat of as easy accomplishment, as to communi- 
cate with instantaneous effect to the tropical 
regions of Asia a code of laws and manners, the 
growth of a distant country, and ripened by a 
succession of ages in the latitudes of the North. 
As well might we expect the Hindu* to change 
his skin, as in a moment to renounce his customs, 
endeared by long familiarity and consecrated 
by Brahma himself. Neither are the falsa, 
voces only to be unlearned : the true accents 
also are to be acquired. An entire regeneration 
in short of the whole man is to take place, in an 
instant, from the magical operation of some 
unknown, unsolicited, and at first probably 
unpalatable laws ! 

Unthinking benevolence may be productive 
of as much mischief, as deliberate malignity. 
We must follow the genius, observe the habits, 
and respect to a considerable degree the preju- 

* The aboriginal inhabitants of India, on account of their 
great disproportion ti majori to the rest of it's population, have 
been chiefly referred to throughout tjiis Essay. Mohammeda- 
nism, in that country, is incidental and imperfect. It's profes- 
sors affect to belong to Castes, and imbibe many other pollution^ 
from the contiguous idolatry of their dependents. 
Grcecia captajerum victorem cepit. 



24 A DISSERTATION ON 

dices, of such a mighty mass of people. Their 
involuntary ignorance must be treated with 
tenderness, and some degree of regard must be 
extended even to their erroneous customs, as 
well as to their irrational modes of worship.* 
We are not to estimate the future river, at it's 
influx into the ocean, from the gushing of it's 
source. It is one of the eternal ordinaries of 
nature, that what is great must be produced by 
great efforts. This is the law of gestation of the 
elephant. 

With a view then to the melioration of our 
subjects in Hindostan, one of our first objects, 
whether we look to their civil or to their reli- 
gious improvement, should be the establishment 
of a Christian Caste or tribe. To attain this 



* Not however to the immoral length of tolerating the 
Mohammedan in his polygamy (as recommended by Madan, 
Thelyphth. ii.) or the Hindu in his horrid immolation of widows, 
and in his throwing propitiatory infants into the sacred stream. 
Verelst, in his ' View of the English Government in Bengal, ' 
contends for the continuance of polygamy, as the law of the 
climate ! for the seclusion of females, as immutable ! &c. See 
likewise Hodges' ( Travels in India/ Craufurd's ' Sketches of 
the Hindus,' &c. That the self-devotion of the widow is not 
always a voluntary act, some horrid proofs are given in a note 
to the f Memoirs of the Baptist-*Mission' (i. 57. ii. 245.) The 
number of Indian infants and young persons, annually offered 
to the genius of the stream, has been estimated at five and 
twenty, or thirty thousand. 



CIVILISING INDIA. 25 

end, in opposition to the strong resistance of 
Eastern prejudices, will probably be an achieve- 
ment of extraordinary difficulty. But when it 
is considered, that the convert inevitably loses 
his original Caste by communion with strangers, 
and that this forfeiture, severe in the extreme 
to himself, descends with undiminished rigour 
to his posterity, we cannot deem any honour- 
able exertions to obviate it's terrors too labo- 
rious. If seclusion in one of the solitary cells 
of a British gaol, with the assurance of a speedy 
restoration to social life, be justly regarded by 
the criminal as one of the heaviest of penalties, 
what must be the dismay produced in the mind 
of the timid Hindu, when he contemplates 
that c total eclipse,' in the disastrous shade of 
which his unoffending little ones and their 
posterity are equally with himself to be for ever 
included ! Unaccustomed, and from his igno- 
rance of all moral symbols and modes of compu- 
tation unqualified, to calculate the relative 
merits of theological systems, he may well 
hesitate, before he pronounces upon himself and 
his issue the terrible sentence of political and 
social suicide. The partial famine, to which 
he is instantly consigned, is but a trivial earnest 
of the horrors in reserve for him, when his 
touch will be sufficient to induce even Famine 
herself to reject her scanty morsel with disgust, 



26 A DISSERTATION ON 

and his very shadow will pollute the unfortunate 
being upon whom it may casually rest. If the 
project however here suggested be practicable, 
an asylum will be opened for his reception, 
which, providing a double remedy for the shame 
and the suffering inflicted by this inexorable 
resentment, may supply him at once with society 
and with employment. Both these ends will 
be attained to an extent, proportioned to the 7 
wealth and the authority of the members of the 
newly- constituted tribe. If a few of the Brah-? 
mins or Khatrys, especially such as possess 
extensive territorial influence ; if a Rajah or a 
powerful Zemindar could be won by the spirit of 
that gospel, which though emphatically preached 
to the poor numbered among it's earliest pro- 
fessors a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, of 
the Athenian Areopagus, and of the Roman 
Senate, the countenance and resources of the 
illustrious converts would be speedily effectual 
for the proselyting of multitudes. The neces- 
sity of such an institution is strongly evinced 
by the documents exhibited in the Baptist- 
Accounts, to which the present Essay has so 
frequently referred : and, as it might cau- 
tiously admit the more deserving Parias (or 
outcasts) of well-attested integrity, it would 
probably swell in progress of time, from the 
size of a small cloud like a man's hand, till it 



CIVILISING INDIA. £? 

over-shadowed the giant superstition, and co- 
vered with freshness and fertility the burning 
deserts of Hindostan. 

Many subordinate plans, of contemporary 
execution, now press at once upon our view. 
While Societies, philosophical and literary, and 
Academies with their accompaniments of lec- 
tures, museums, and printing-presses would more 
exclusively be demanded for the illumination 
of the great and the affluent, Schools, of the 
nature which in Great Britain would be called 
Parochial, should everywhere be established for 
the instruction of the lower classes of the com- 
munity. 

Literary Institutions, under proper regulati- 
ons, have always promoted the diffusion of valu- 
able knowledge. By the collision of mind with 
mind, truth is elicited. The Asiatic Society, 
founded twenty years ago under the auspices 
of Sir William Jones, distrusting their own 
powers of acquiring and communicating infor- 
mation, invited with dignified condescension 
the literati of the West to assist their researches 
for the benefit of mankind. O noble challenge! 
O virtuous competition ! Philosophy and Piety 
may indeed well exult in contemplating indivi- 
duals, disjoined by half the circumference of the 
globe, amidst languages, manners, and pursuits 



28 A DISSERTATION ON 

the most dissimilar, harmonising in one bene- 
volent exercise of their faculties, and combining 
to multiply the sources of universal happi- 
ness! 

Seminaries likewise of different characters, 
adapted to the different stages of education or 
to the different ranks of the educated, the 
School and the University, will be found essen- 
tial to the progress of science, and calculated 
to give it rapidity, extent, and permanence. Of 
the erection of Universities a magnificent exam- 
ple has already been exhibited in the College, 
recently founded at Fort- William under the 
auspices of the Honourable the Directors of the 
East India Company, and the more immediate 
orders and inspection of the Governor General, 
the Marquis Wellesley ; a nobleman, as a 
Roman would have pronounced him, familiar 
with both the Minervas, and qualified equally 
to conciliate the suffrages of the senate and to 
control the fortunes of the field. On a topic 
like this, the writer finds it difficult to restrain 
himself within the bounds of legitimate digres- 
sion, when he sees the favourite and successful 
system of his own Cambridge flourishing in the 
capital of Bengal ; when he hears disputations 
supported, in the different dialects of that 
immense country, upon moral topics of the 



CIVILISING INDIA. 29 

highest local interest, under names once familiar 
and ever grateful to his ear.* But without 
indulging in partialities, however venial, it is 
his duty to suggest the valuable purposes, which 
this and similar establishments promise to effect. 
By systematic regulation and discipline they 
secure attention to a due course of study, which 
had previously been dependent on individual 
fancy or accidental situation : and to perpetuate 
these advantages, as far as is consistent with the 
frailty of all human projects, they are calculated 
to transmit to future times by the uniformity of 
public institution whatever benefit can be derived 
from present examples of wisdom, virtue, and 
learning. Hence also the future ministers of 
our Indian government may be selected, with 
the greatest advantage both to our subjects and 
to ourselves: ministers, who will best know 
how to exert it's energies in war, and to aug- 
ment it's resources in peace ; " to maintain, 
with honour and respect, it's relations with the 
native powers ; and to establish (under a just 
and benignant system of internal administration) 
the prosperity of our finances and commerce on 
the solid foundations of the affluence, the hap- 

* It will be readily understood, that the writer refers to the 
terms opponent, moderator, &c., used in the public examinations 
at the new College. 



30 A DISSERTATION OK 

piness, and the confidence of a contented and 
grateful people.*" 

In Mr, Burke's celebrated speech on East 
Indian affairs in 1783, it was strongly urged, as 
an instance of fatal abuse in our management of 
that empire, that u young men (boys almost) 
govern there, without society and without 
sympathy with the natives. They have no 
more social habits with the people, than if they 
still resided in England > nor indeed any species 
of intercourse, but that which is necessary to 
making a sudden fortune with a view to a remote 
settlement. Animated with all the avarice of 
age, and all the impetuosity of youth, they roll 
in one after another, wave after wave ; and 
there is nothing before the eyes of the natives, 
but an endless hopeless prospect of new flights 
of birds of prey and passage, with appetites 
continually renewing for a food that is conti- 
nually wasting. Their prey is lodged in 
England ; and the cries of India are given to 
seas and winds to be blown about, in every 
breaking up of the monsoon, over a remote and 
unhearing ocean." This statement will be 
perused with augmented interest, when it is 

* See Marquis Wellesley's Address to the Students, &c. It 
would be unjust not to mention the judisious plan, lately 
adopted by the Honourable the Directors of the East India 
Company, for an establishment of a similar nature at Hertford, 



CIVILISING INDIA. 31 

considered that by the late accessions to our 
Eastern territory, and it's growing importance 
to our welfare, we have now a much more 
valuable property at stake, a more extended 
frontier to defend, and a broader surface of 
population to maintain in tranquillity ; that in 
the multitudes of Hindostan we cannot hope, 
under the most favourable combination of cir- 
cumstances, to be without enemies ;* and that a 
malignant European foe, indefatigable in the 
pursuit of advantages and inexorable in the use 
of them, watches every opportunity of annoying 
us in that paradise of our commerce and of 
infusing venom into the ear of India, 

Assaying with his devilish art to reach 
The organs of her fancy. 

To obviate the effects of these secret machi- 
nations, if we consider the question merely in 
it's political bearings, who so competent as 
merchants and military characters attached to 
their interests from an enlightened conviction 
of their being identified with their own ; as 
envoys rendered familiar with their languages, 
their manners, and their customs ? What so 
likely to generate this conviction, and to 
increase this familiarity, as an academical esta- 

fowjvTw ouuwq s%w ii[Atv, (Demosth.) 



32 A DISSERTATION ON 

blishment, having these objects chiefly if not 
solely in it's contemplation ? We may add how- 
ever, as it's farther and less direct consequences, 
that it will assimilate the pursuits, and thus give 
unity to the principles and the systems, of the 
three distinct Presidencies ; and, by patronising 
and producing elementary and other works in 
the department of oriental literature, facilitate 
it's diffusion through the remotest provinces of 
the East : that it will supply the means of study* 
ing the laws, and comparing the former modes 
of government in those countries with their 
respective effects ; of contracting within due 
bounds the monstrous extravagances of their 
chronology, one of the last remaining weak posts 
of modern scepticism ; and of ascertaining their 
geography and the products of their soil, many 
of them turgid perhaps with salubrious juices 
inspissated by a vertical sun ; and that, in union 
with British science, it will open new sources 
of national wealth in those hitherto-neglected 
regions. 

But, in a religious aspect, Institutions of this 
kind will eventually be productive of still more 
beneficial and important results. At the first 
propagation of the gospel, a knowledge of lan- 
guages was miraculously communicated, both 
as an attestation of it's truth, and for the pur- 
pose of expediting it's progress. What, for 



CIVILISING INDIA. $3 

causes which no longer exist, was at that time 
supernaturally imparted, is now to be attained 
only by the ordinary exertions of human indus- 
try. Neither are we, in the discharge of this 
arduous part of our duty, without the recom- 
pence of present reward. Accepted by the Hin- 
dus as a compliment to their national prejudices, 
the study of their learned and their vernacu- 
lar tongues has already proved highly concilia- 
tory. In the investigation of the Sanscrit more 
particularly, long buried as it has been under 
the political lava of many successive invasions, 
much has occurred to instruct and to gratify. 
We have scarcely passed the outer wall of 
this literary Herculaneum, and glittering frag- 
ments of the utmost value appear on every side 
of us. The Christian scholar, especially, is 
delighted to meet, in the short progress which 
has. hitherto been made, with many bright con- 
firmations of the Mosaic story. 

As subsidiary to Colleges, and of more exten- 
sive efficacy with reference to the great mass of 
population, Schools also should be erected. With 
these instruments, chiefly, have the minds of the 
negroes in the interior of Africa been led by 
their Mohammedan conquerors to relative 
refinement. Civilised by the introduction of 
Arabian science, with the information they 
have imbibed the superstition of their teachers* 



34 A DISSERTATION ON 

It was the suggestion of the enlightened Wash- 
ington*, that schools should be established 

* Nor is his successor, if we may trust his own representa- 
tion, deficient in those attentions, which justice and policy and 
humanity so imperiously require. In the inaugural speech of 
the American President, delivered March 4, 1805, is a strong 
passage relative to the aboriginal inhabitants of that country. 
<( Endowed with the faculties and the rights of men, breathing 
an ardent love of liberty and independence, and occupying a 
country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the 
stream of overflowing population from other regions directed 
itself on their shores. Without power to divert or habits to 
contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the current 
or driven before it. Now reduced within limits too narrow for 
the hunter state, humanity injoins us to teach them agriculture 
and the domestic arts ; to encourage them to that industry, 
which alone can enable them to maintain their place in exist- 
ence, and to prepare them in time for that state of society, 
which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind 
and morals. We have, therefore, liberally furnished them with 
the implements of husbandry and household use: we have 
placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity; and 
they are covered with the aegis of the law against aggressors 
from among ourselves. — But the endeavours to enlighten them 
on the fate which awaits their present course of life, to induce 
them to exercise their reason, follow it's dictates, and change 
their pursuits with the change of circumstances, have powerful 
obstacles to encounter. They are combated by the habits of 
their bodies, the prejudices of their minds, ignorance, pride, and 
the influence of interested and crafty individuals among them, 
who feel themselves something in the present order of things, 
and fear to become nothing in any other. These persons incul- 
cate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their ances- 
tors; that whatever they did, must be done through all time; 



CIVILISING INDIA. 35 

throughout America at the public expense. In 
countries, where they have long subsisted, 
their beneficial consequences in the prevention 
of crimes and the promotion of industry and 
morality have been strikingly conspicuous.* 
To be taught indeed to read only, greatly pro- 
motes both the comprehension and the practice 

that reason is a false guide, and to advance under it's counsel 
in their physical, moral, or political condition is perilous inno- 
vation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made 
them, ignorance being safety, and knowledge full of danger ;" 
&c. 

* In Scotland, and in Switzerland, as I have elsewhere 
stated, the benevolent Howard found the gaols more empty than 
in any other parts of his extensive travels; a fact, which he 
ascribed wholly to the more regular instruction of their lower 
classes. Well therefore may " the law, by which parish- 
schools were founded in the former of those countries, challenge 
comparison with any act of legislation recorded by history, 
whether we consider the wisdom of the end, the simplicity of the 
means, or the provision made for insuring the effect." In 
1698, Fletcher of Saltoun states that there could not be fewer 
than " 100,000 vagabonds living in that country, without any 
regard or subjection either to the laws of the land, or even to 
those of God and nature:" that "no magistrate could at any 
time discover, whether or not they had ever been baptized, or 
in what way one in a hundred went out of the world : n that 
u they were frequently guilty of robbery, and sometimes of 
Hmrther;" and that "at country- weddings, markets, burials, 
and other public occasions they were to be seen (both men, and 
women) perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting 
together." What a contrast to Burns' c Cotter's Saturday 
night ! ' 

c 2 



36 A DISSERTATION ON 

of religion. This with the distribution of the 
Versions and Tracts, which have been recom- 
mended, will best qualify the people to judge 
for themselves upon that important topic. Their 
faith will rest upon something more solid, than 
mere human authority. Like the Bereans of 
old, they may search the scriptures daily, whe- 
ther these things be so. 

As education (particularly, that of a religious 
kind) is diffused, civilisation, rural economy, 
and morality with their certain consequences, 
affluence and augmented population, will follow 
in it's train. Abeunt studia in mores. From 
the reluctant submission and frequent rebellions 
of the subdued Rajahs, the Mohammedans 
might have inferred what Mr. Burke somewhere 
emphatically calls c the ill-husbandry of injus- 
tice.' We shall profit by their experience ; 
and in the increased resources of our finance, 
and still more in the affectionate attachment of 
our fellow-subjects, we shall receive, even at 
present, our exceeding great reward. 

Now will exulting congregations throng to 
hear the glad tidings of great joy, xvhich shall he 
to all people. The pagodas of Vishnu and Shiva 
will be universally dispossessed, as they have 
recently been in some parts of Tanjore,* of 

* It is satisfactory to state that the Rajah of this country, 
from respect to the memory of it's great apostle Swartz, whoa 



CIVILISING INDIA. 37 

their horrid idols, and converted into Christian 
churches : the hallowed axe and hammer will 
ring through the land : Sabbaths will be insti- 
tuted, and the cheerful sound of village-bells 
will announce the welcome return of the day of 
devotion and repose : the purified edifices will 
echo with the accents of genuine religion, 
uttered by British tongues in the respective 
dialects of Bengal, Guzerat, and Malabar : the 
humble responses of rustic piety will rise, like 
incense, to heaven : the mass of the people 
will be inspired with those feelings of truth and 
ustice, and with that reverence for an oath, 
which are essential to the safety of the social 
state ; and, while at the footstool of the Throne 
of Grace they unite in acknowledging their 
common dependence upon God, and dismiss 
from their breasts every selfish and ungenerous 
regard, their long-expected Avatar* will take 
place; not, as they fondly trust, with the dis- 
astrous splendor of temporal conquest, but in 

he has honoured with a monument, protects the Christian con- 
verts, and allows divine service in the Tamulian to be continued 
in the two forts of Tanjore. 

* The Avatars or descents of the Deity, in the Hindu my* 
thology, are ten, nine of which have already happened. In the 
one still future, the Divine Being is to appear as a mighty angel, 
leading a white and winged horse. Between these and some 
Jewish traditions Dr. Allix, in his e Judgement of tho Jewish 
Church,' has discovered a surprising parallelism. 



38 A DISSERTATION ON 

the silent illapse of the Holy Spirit into the 
regenerated heart. 

That the continuance of an exclusive Com- 
pany is closely, perhaps vitally, connected with 
the subject before us, cannot be denied. By 
the regulations which have been suggested, and 
still more perhaps by the measure next to be pro- 
posed, their existing system of intercourse with 
India would, assuredly, be deeply affected ; whe- 
ther for the better or for the worse, with refer- 
ence to their private interests (for of the even- 
tual advantage to the British empire there can 
be no doubt) is, probably, at present an undrawn 
conclusion. With regard indeed to the general 
operation of a commercial charter, the most 
opposite opinions have prevailed ; and great 
names have arranged themselves on each side of 
the discussion. One party, drawing their 
arrows from the quiver of our countryman, Dr. 
Adam Smith, affirm of the East India Com- 
pany, that c it is a nuisance pernicious almost 
equally to the country in which it is established, 
and to that with which it trades:* that, 
c abroad, it confounds the functions of mer- 
chant and sovereign, and from their incom- 
patibility abuses both ; prefers little transitory 
profits in possession to large permanent reve- 
nues in contingency ; by the exclusion of com- 
petition keeps down the price of Eastern manu- 



CIVILISING INDIA, 39 

factures, and through the depression of the 
artist destroys the prosperity of the husband- 
man ; paralyses, in short, every principle of 
Asiatic industry ; and is in the majority of it's 
proprietors, from irresistible moral causes, per- 
fectly indifferent about the happiness or the 
misery of it's subjects, the improvement or the 
waste of it's dominions, the glory or the disgrace 
of it's administration : while, at home, it infal- 
libly raises the value of every article, which it 
imports ; limits the introduction of the raw, and 
the exportation of the wrought material ; and 
yet under the most invidious partiality of en- 
couragement, in spite of favour and of artifice, 
has often been impelled to the very edge of 
that perdition, which has already swallowed up 
all it's predecessors chartered by foreign states, 
and at present exists only by the generous for- 
bearance of it's injured country.' By the oppo- 
site party it is contended that, c whatever may 
be the plausibility of the theory, the experiment 
of throwing down the enclosure, which appro- 
priates our Indian commerce, was tried in the 
time of the Protectorate for a period of nearly 
five years, and completely failed : that all the 
adventurers, after exciting disgust by their 
haughtiness or tumults by their turbulence, in 
the regions which they visited, fell victims to 
their indiscreet cupidity : that, generally speak- 



40 A DISSERTATION ON 

ing, individual capitals cannot bear the slow 
returns of a distant and hazardous commerce : 
that, independently of the grand circulation be- 
tween those huge extremes of our empire, the 
capitals of the three Presidencies, and London 
it's mighty heart, there is one of a minor and 
more delicate character (like that in the human 
system, which transmits the blood through the 
lungs, to prepare it for it's vital functions) 
between the Company's collectors of revenue, 
their overseers distributed through different 
parts of their dominions, the manufacturers, 
and the ryuts or native peasantry, which it 
would be dangerous to disturb and perhaps im% 
possible to recompose ; and that, this circulation 
intercepted, first the influence of our govern- 
ment, next our political connexion, and lastly 
our commerce itself with India would probably 
perish.' The progress of this political argu- 
ment, which has been productive of much alter- 
cation, it is not my present intention to state. 
It is allowed, however, by many respectable au- 
thorities that, whatever might be it's immediate 
effect upon the traffic of the East, it would be 
judicious at this point to introduce a gradual 
and guarded colonisation from Europe, as essen- 
tial to the stability of our Asiatic power. 

But, upon this question, the alarm of some is 
excited by a recollection of the issue of our 



CIVILISING INDIA. 41 

American experiment. The dissimilarity of 
the two cases, which must infallibly operate to 
dissipate such an apprehension, has been stated 
with much precision and perspicuity in the 
Edinburgh Review.* Generated by persecu- 
tion, and thriving from neglect, the establish- 
ments of the West owed little gratitude to the 
parent-state. Protected at first by their poverty, 
and long afterward by their remoteness, they 
sprang up with a love of freedom and a con- 
sciousness of importance, which ultimately pro- 
voked a melancholy struggle with the mother- 
country, embittered by mutual excesses, and 
ending in the total disruption of the ties of 
nature and policy. Our colonists in the oppo^ 
site quarter of the globe will enter, not (like 
the original emigrants to America) on wastes 
and forests, the haunts of scattered and vagrant 
hordes of savages, but upon tracts in many 
places occupied by a numerous and a partially* 

* No. vii. 305., to which the author is, likewise, under obli- 
gations for some of his subsequent remarks upon the agriculture 
of Hindostan, and for other occasional illustrations of his sub- 
ject. On a topic like this indeed, which would have demanded 
at least Horace's term of years for composition, revision, &c. 
and upon which opportunities of personal or local observation, 
are scarcely to be presumed in a youthful writer, much of what 
is advanced must virtually partake of the nature of a cento. 



42 A DISSERTATION ON 

civilised population ; and can only by a syste- 
matical union among themselves, and a close 
combination with Great Britain, be enabled to 
surmount the perils, which in their unsettled 
state they must be prepared to encounter, of 
insurrection at home and of invasion from 
abroad. With respect to the former, especially, 
their numbers and diffusion will be necessary to 
check those conspiracies among the natives, 
which will be fomented with secret and unre- 
mitting industry by our inveterate European 
enemy. We have not forgotten his appoint- 
ment of Agents (as a part of the late peace- 
establishment) in many of our principal sea- 
ports ; nor the crude mixture of whining sen- 
sibility and political intrigue, by which, in his 
instructions to the Missionaries* (one of the 
many fruits of his recent zeal for Christianity !) 
he " recalls, with tender emotion, to the minds 
of the young enthusiasts the services rendered 



* Their number is to "be five hundred; of whom fifty are 
destined for the East Indies (to preach piety, no doubt, and 
observance of oaths to the Mahratta princes) one hundred for 
China, one hundred for Africa and America, fifty for the South 
Sea Islands, twenty for the savages of Canada, and the rest, 
one hundred and eighty, for the refined population of France ! 
But his projects have happily, it is to be hoped, found their 
termination. (1816.) 



CIVILISING INDIA. 43 

to humanity by Bartholomew de las Casas, 
Xavier, Vincent de Paul, Lamy, Tachard, &c. j" 
and concludes, by injoining them to "acquire 
every possible intelligence respecting the com- 
mercial capabilities of the countries, to which 
they are sent!" He has elsewhere* professed 
his fixed purpose of " forming multiplied and* 
permanent relations with India, of learning and 
consulting the interests of her different princes, 
following the course and vicissitudes of their 
policy, entering into advantageous connexions 
with them, and thus placing himself in a situa- 
tion to profit by the chances of fortune !'* an 
other terms, to sap the British power in Hin- 
dostan, and upon it's ruins to erect his own. 
But these, if the meditated introduction of 
science and Christianity should be effected, will 
prove to be vain hopes. The benevolence of 
our motives, the efficacy of our means, and the 
magnitude of the end will attach the natives 
too strongly to their present protectors, to 
admit of their being seduced by the great 
Deceiver. 

Others again have urged, that the mild and 
unaspiring Hindu, if once he catch from co- 

* See a Memoir of M. Briere de Surgy on the Indian Trade, 
published in M. Herbin's < Statistique generate et particulierc 
de la France et de ses Colonies. 9 



44 A DISSERTATION ON 

habitation a portion of the characteristic spirit, 
or receive an impression of the civil and politi- 
cal rights of his British teachers, may burst our 
chains and expel us from our dominion. This 
anticipated change, as far as it substitutes man- 
liness for servility, and elevates the native of 
India from the rank of a mere automaton to 
the dignity of a thinking creature, would surely 
be highly desirable, and must for Christianity 
be most honourable. But Christianity teaches 
no wild lessons of impracticable or useless inde- 
pendence : the spiritual equality, of which she 
everywhere speaks, is accompanied by expla* 
nations and correctives which, far from levelling, 
oppose the firmest obstacles to the encroach- 
ments of insubordination. Common nature, as 
it may be hoped, would not exert it's newly- 
acquired energies in stinging the bosom, by 
whose fostering warmth it had been awakened 
into animation ; and to Christian nature such a 
deed would be impossible. On the contrary 
we may conclude that, with a grateful sense of 
the inestimable boon of our arts and our re- 
ligion, as soon as they can properly appretiate 
their value, instead of regarding us with sus- 
picion or rejecting us with coldness, the bene- 
fited people will embrace us as brethren, and 
reverence us as saviours. A circulation of ser* 



CIVILISING INDIA. 45 

vices and requitals will be established : Great 
Britain will protect and enlighten India, and 
India will enrich and strengthen Great Britain. 

But, till the superstitious prejudices of the 
Hindus are so far softened as to tolerate the 
admission of foreigners on the liberal principle 
here suggested, insulated settlements upon a 
smaller scale must be made among them ; either 
as Colonists, after the example of those at 
Sierra Leone, who may display the advantages 
of rural economy, supply employment and 
society to such of the natives as from the adop- 
tion of Christianity may require those supports, 
and thus imperceptibly exert a beneficial in- 
fluence over the habits and manners of their 
idolatrous neighbourhood ; or as Missionaries 
on foundations similar to those of the United 
Brethren, consisting of individuals of both 
sexes, who by the simplicity and piety of their 
conduct may still more visibly exhibit the beauty 
of holiness, prove that they themselves are 
what they would persuade their hearers to be, 
and like Oases in the midst of a dreary desert 
refresh the eye with greenness and fertility. 

When, by these and other means, a more 
enlarged intercourse shall at length be opened ; 
when we begin to share the rites of hospitality, 
to contract affinities, and to blend ourselves with 
our Indian fellow-subjects in all the endearing 



46 A DISSERTATION ON 

relations of private life, then may the rich har- 
vest of our preceding labours be expected, 

et incipient magni procedere menses. 

Of this more intimate connexion, one of the 
first and most important consequences will be 
the improvement of the agriculture of Hin- 
dostan. This, though in some respects favoured 
by their religious system, is generally at pre- 
sent, from many concurring causes, in a most 
wretched state. Rude in their implements, 
slovenly in their practice, and ignorant to a sur- 
prising degree of the most simple principles of 
their vocation, the peasantry of India throw 
away their toil in ill-directed efforts. Their 
ploughs, which make little impression even 
upon the lightest soils, are wholly unequal to 
the resistance of new and loamy countries, such 
as in particular is that of Bengal ; their harrows, 
still more primitive in their construction, are 
boughs broken from the nearest tree. Unac- 
quainted with the prime necessity of manure to 
renovate, and of the rotation of crops to relieve, 
the exhausted earth ; with the uses of green 
crops to increase the quantity of subsistence 
and manure, or the value of artificial grasses to 
supply the native vegetation when checked by 
the excessive heats ; with the proper seasons 
for ploughing and sowing, and the most advan- 



CIVILISING INDIA. 47 

tageous methods of reaping the produce ; with 
the inestimable benefit of enclosures, and the 
judicious principle of confining each field for 
the year to a single species of grain — the Hindu 
farmer, notwithstanding the number of his har- 
vests and the fertility of his soil, is for ever 
trembling on the verge of beggary and famine. 
To this, however, the fluctuation of rent, which 
is made by the Zemindar* (or next superior 
landlord) to depend upon the success of the 
year, and the total want of capital in the tenant, 
more fatally contribute than all the other causes 
which we have enumerated ; the latter denying 
the means, while the former annihilates the very 
spirit, of agricultural improvement. From the 
introduction alone of British wealth, skill, and 
enterprise can these miserable beings t ever ex- 

* It would be impossible in this place to discuss the question, 
whether the Zemindar be a mere collector of revenues, remov- 
able at pleasure (as asserted by Mr. Grant in his valuable 
* Inquiry into the Nature of Zemindary Tenures, &c.') or an 
hereditary feodary under the Great Mogul (as contended by 
Mr. Rous, and Sir William Jones) ; though the question be of 
considerable importance with reference to the alteration of te«= 
nure, &c. necessary to secure the interests of the cultivator. In 
Mr. Verelst's valuable < Form of Instructions to Supra- visors/ 
the distinctions of land into Jaghires, Taluks, Coss, Comar, 
Ryutty, &c, and their respective abuses, are well ascertained. 

f The penury and wretchedness of the Ryuts is attested by 
Craufurd, in his f Sketches of the Hindus' from personal obser- 



4S A DISSERTATION ON 

perience any substantial amendment of their 
condition. With a formidable opinion of our 
energy, they have already began to combine a 
favourable impression of our benevolence.* 
They have condescended on our suggestion to 
cultivate the potatoe, which fortunately thrives 
best in those seasons of drought, in which their 
rice-crops are least productive ; they have en- 
gaged in the management of indigo, and they 
have learnt the art of ship-building. An attempt 
has been made to transfer the cochineal-plant 
from the forests of Mexico to the groves of 
Bengal, and the bread-fruit tree flourishes at 
Madras. With the new settlers new plans of 
melioration will be imported, and the experience 

vation. (i One of them showed Hie his feet covered with 
Misters,, by being alternately in the water and on the scorching 
ground ; and, pointing to some coarse rice and a few pepper- 
pods, said, ' This is all we have in return.' I am sorry to add, that- 
I fear he gave but too faithful a representation of the state of 
some millions beside himself." 

* In no instance, perhaps, more unequivocally or more suc- 
cessfully evinced, than by our recent introduction of vaccination 
into the East. It will require great vigilance on our part, and 
some address, to prevent it's acting toward the confirmation of 
their superstitious opinion of the divinity of the cow, which 
has undoubtedly facilitated it's reception. With this caution 
however it will prove a blessing, of which, from the previous 
ravages of the small-pox, the effects are scarcely to be calcu- 
lated. It has already established itself in the greatest part of 
Hindustan and Ceylon. 



CIVILISING INDIA. 49 

of former benefits will, as we may reasonably 
conclude, induce their ready adoption. India 
abounds in navigable rivers ; but these, in con- 
sequence of the sudden swells to which they 
are liable in the more contracted part of their 
channel from the monsoons, and from the Bore 
or rapid influx of the tide near their opening 
into the sea, are extremely hazardous. In the 
formation, however, of canals (a mode of com- 
munication the more necessary in Bengal, as 
that province is destitute of materials for the 
making of roads) and in the distribution of 
water for the purposes of irrigation, these rivers 
afford the greatest facilities. The ruined re- 
servoirs,* many of them works of royal gran- 
deur, intended to preserve the precious deposit 
of the periodical rains, will be repaired ; new 
ones will be constructed ; receptacles will be 
formed, and embankments raised, to guard 
against the present ruinous effects of inun- 

* " Formed (as described by Mr. Burke, in his Speech on the 
Nabob of Arcot's debts, in 1785) in the happier times of India, 
for the greater part of mounds of earth and stones, with sluices 
of solid masonry ; the whole constructed with admirable skill 
and labour, maintained at a mighty charge, and varying from 
an extent of two or three acres to five miles in circuit.'' — " There 
cannot be, in the Carnatic and Tanjore alone, fewer than 10,000 
of these reservoirs of the larger and middling dimensions ; to say 
nothing of those for domestic services, and the use of religious 
purification." 

D 



50 A DISSERTATION ON 

dations : fresh systems of medicine, improved 
processes in the arts, more efficient agricultural 
implements, new seeds, useful applications of 
the indigenous gums and resins will be intro- 
duced : property will be protected ; and in lieu 
of their present dreariness the valleys of India, 
now literally vales of tears, will stand so thick 
with corn that they shall laugh and sing. 

But here again the necessity of caution, as a 
principle most essential both from the mag- 
nitude and the delicacy of the undertaking, 
recurs in it's full force. From the evidence of 
Mr. Petrie before a Select Committee of the 
House of Commons in 1782 it appeared, with 
reference to the township of Nagore, and by no 
means as an extraordinary instance, that " some 
farmers from Madras, strangers to the manners 
and customs of the people, by their new modes 
of proceeding threw the whole district into 
confusion, upon which many deserted the cul- 
tivation and left the country." When we thus 
repeatedly enforce the necessity of circum- 
spection, it would be unjust not to record the 
tender solicitude of Sir William Jones to pre- 
serve from violation the peculiar laws and the 
inveterate prejudices of Hindostan. The zeal 
with which, in his Charges to the Grand Jury 
of Calcutta, he contends for the reasonable in? 
(Julgence of the one and the strict observance 



CIVILISING INDIA. 51 

of the other, as the best means of conciliating 
the affections and of promoting the industry and 
the happiness of the natives ; his careful scrutiny 
into the forms of adjuration, held as obligatory 
by the consciences of Hindu witnesses; his 
assiduity in studying (what he himself pro- 
nounces, e difficult and unprofitable ' languages) 
the Arabic and the Sanscrit, in which the laws 
of the two great divisions of Indian population 
are written ; the earnest representation, which 
he made to the British government in that 
country, respecting the necessity of a Digest, 
by which the particular statutes relative to con- 
tracts and inheritances might be simplified ; 
with his judicious suggestion of a plan of the 
work, and his disinterested generosity in offering 
to superintend it's execution, are circumstances, 
which leave us at a loss what part of his charac- 
ter we ought principally to idolise. But his 
conduct in Hindostan, illustrious and admirable 
as it was, disclosed only a small portion of his 
various excellence. The humanity, integrity, 
affection, unconquerable independence of spirit, 
and ceaseless activity of intellect, which were 
discovered through the whole tenor of his life, 
would have secured to him the love and vene- 
ration of his darling country ; even if he had 
never in the pursuit of her interests, incor- 
porated with those of the human race, crossed 

D 2 



52 A DISSERTATION ON 

the oc aa and faded under the sun of India. — 
But I return. 

The right of property once established, by 
making it's great boundaries distinct, visible, 
and irremovable, and leaving nothing to the 
jus xagum aut incognitw?i 9 the caprice or the un- 
certainty of discretionary interpretation, every 
wheel of the social machine, cleansed from the 
foulness and rust which it has contracted from 
the continued neglect of many ages, will resume 
it's functions with renovated vigour : the hus- 
bandman will supply abundant nutriment to 
the families of the manufacturer, the mechanic, 
and the artist ; and will receive from them, in 
ample requital, whatever the necessities of his 
own family may lead him to demand. Influ- 
enced by our example, and by considerations of 
subsistence for themselves and their posterity, 
the natives will renounce their pernicious pre- 
maturity of marriage, which is ordained by the 
laws of the East not to be deferred beyond the 
eleventh year ; and, with this abuse, the con- 
comitant emasculation of character will pro- 
bably cease. They will begin to cherish a 
generous propensity to live beyond the grave, 
in the memory of their descendents, as well as 
in the bosom of their God. Upon this three- 
fold base, of secured property, regulated mar- 
riage, and tempered self-love, will rise the 



CIVILISING INDIA. 33 

proud pyramid of Hindu civilisation ; it's apex 
surmounted with that true emblem of conver- 
sion, a heart exhaling in fervent adoration to 
Heaven.* 

III. For, if " it be glorious to civilise," let 
us recollect that " it is sublime to convert." 
Now must be unfolded the peculiar and more 
recondite doctrines of the Gospel. No barren 

* I have purposely abstained from speaking of the Catholic 
Missionariesj who have issued at different times from the reces- 
ses of their cloisters to enlighten the heathen world. Question- 
able at least in their motives, and equivocal in their success (for 
their habits and views are seldom such, as to attach eredit to 
their narratives) t}iey seem in general, from the Revolutionists 
of Malabar t6 the Jesuits of Japan, to have carried along with 
them a due portion of the secularity of their parent-church. 
Can we then be surprised that the inhabitants of India, when 
they saw the wooden images in the pontifical temples, shrunk 
from the idea of incurring all the privations consequent on the 
loss of Caste, in behalf of what they might reasonably esteem 
to be idolatries not greatly superior to their own ? Illic cceruleos, 
hie piscem Jiuminis. From the failure, therefore, of Popish 
missions we have no cause to apprehend the unsuccessful issue 
of ours. As precursors indeed, introducing the knowledge 
of the Scriptures, they have unconsciously prepared the way 
for pure Protestantism. For the human mind, any religion is 
preferable to none. The errors of the Church of Rome, where 
they are adopted, involve their own eventual refutation. The 
good will remain. The stream of time, which continually 
washes away the gaudy and dissoluble additions of human 
policy, will finally leave in it's own simple grandeur the ada- 
mantine rock of Christianity, 



54? A DISSERTATION ON 

generalities, which under the names of Christian 
Philosophy, Rational Christianity, &c. would 
vainly recommend religion to the unsanctifled 
heart ; no mere morality, such as the Ethics of 
Aristotle or the Offices of Tully would supply, 
and which might have been as effectually pro- 
pagated without the death of the o r :ginal com- 
piler ; no dry metaphysics, beyond the reach or 
the relish of an humble congregation soliciting 
from our lips the words of life, are now required 
of us : but a bold appeal to the avres i<px of 
Him, who spake as never man spake, for the 
mystery of his will ; a plain practical statement 
of the guilt of man, and of the mode provided 
for it's expiation, Repentance toward God and 
Faith tozvard our Lord Jesus Christ, with their 
invariable result, holiness of life. This will lead 
to detailed representations of the evil and the 
misery of sin, in it's threefold division, as affect- 
ing the heart, the tongue, and the life ; the 
justice of the Deity ; the incarnation and suffer- 
ings of the Messiah ; and the necessity, promise, 
and operation of Divine Grace. These all must 
be urged again and again; must be exhibited 
in every view, and accompanied with every pos- 
sible illustration, by the means of printing and 
of preaching, in public and in private. The Press 
in particular, which forwarded the Reformation 
in Europe, must renew it's mighty efforts, and 



CIVILISING INDIA. $5 

become a second time the blessed instrument of 
regenerating another and a far larger portion of 
the human race. The Preachers* must be of 
a spirit affectionate, open, and generous ; with 
the glory of God, and the salvation of their 
fellow-creatures uniformly in their view. In dis- 
putes with their opponents they must be meek 
and courteous, but courageous in encounter- 
ing difficulties and dangers ; wholly disengaged 
from worldly pursuits, that no golden apple, no 
secular object or interest, may tempt them to 
turn aside from their glorious career ; uniting 
the zeal of a Berkeley! with the constancy of a 

* That they have hitherto been much too few in number, 
appears both from the Reports made annually to the Society for 
promoting Christian Knowledge, and from the ( Memoirs of 
the Baptist-Mission.' A supply of assistants will soon, it is 
hoped, be furnished by the natives themselves, who (as in the 
instance of Satianaden, mentioned in the first of the above au- 
thorities) from their local and personal information, as well as 
from their familiar acquaintance with the idolatries which they 
are intended to oppose, will be eminently useful. A knowledge 
of medicine is, likewise, most desirable in the Missionaries, not 
only for the purposes of safety (as Mungo Park frequently ex- 
perienced, in his African travels) but as it may give them access 
to the mind, when softened and prepared by suffering for the 
reception of religious impressions. It was after setting the 
arm of Kristno, the first native proselyte to the Baptist-Mission, 
that Mr. Thomas reasoned with him till he wept like a child ; 
and his conversion was the eventual consequence. 

t The benevolent project of the excellent Berkeley ( for coj> 



56 A DISSERTATION ON 

Xavier; bold, in short, as lions and wise as ser- 
pents, yet gentle as lambs and harmless as doves 
— Such must be the amiable and exalted cha- 
racter of those, whose feet will be pronounced 
beautiful upon the mountains of India, as the 
bringers of good tidings and the publishers of 
peace. 

Shaken already by the defection of the Seiks, 
a numerous and warlike sect possessing the 
Panjab who sprung up about three centuries 
ago, and by the schism of Dulol * (a powerful 
heretic near Chinsurah) the Brahmins begin to 
totter. Let us go forth against them, in the sim- 
plicity of the Gospel. With the most strenuous 
earnestness let us attack the Goliath-principle, 
advanced in the front of the Hindu host, that 
* the Deity not only admits, but admires a variety 
of religions in his creatures.' With the grand 

verting the savage Americans to Christianity by a College to 
be erected in the Isles of Bermuda/ of which, resigning his 
opulent preferment (the Deanery of Derry) he offered to be- 
come the Superintendent, with the very moderate salary of 
100/. per ann. is generally known. See a farther account of this 
generous man, and of his noble project, in Swift's Works (Ed. 
Nichols, 8vo. 1801.) XII. 103, note, and 124—126. 

* His followers are stated, in the ' Memoirs of the Baptist- 
Mission,' xi. 263., to have a kind of negative creed : " They 
believe that Caste is nothing, that the debtahs (or inferior spi- 
ritual orders worshipped by the Hindus) are nothing, that the 
Brahmins are nothing!" These schismatics already amount to 
Several thousands. 



CIVILISING INDIA. 5*7 

scheme of prophecy in our hands, let us sum- 
mon the disciples of Mohammed to trace it 
through all it's nice dependencies and gradual 
evolutions. Known to them both, hitherto, 
chiefly by our energies exhibited on the field of 
victory, let us show them the high virtues seated 
in the sanctuary of our character ; that they 
may bless the day, which first beheld us mounted 
on the throne of India : and recollecting, with 
all humility, that the Druidism of Britain was 
once as barbarous as the Brahminism of Hindos- 
tan, let us evince our gratitude to our Great 
Enlightener, by doing to others what we now so 
justly rejoice that others have done to us. 

Such is our obvious line of duty. If the 
fulness of the time be not yet come, when all 
the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of 
our God, the purposes of Heaven will baffle 
the efforts of our premature diligence. But the 
present appearance of things seems to justify a 
contrary conclusion. Neither, if our imme- 
diate success should be inconsiderable, let us be 
disheartened ; or reject a limited and actual- 
good, from indistinct views of something which, 
under certain assignable contingencies, might 
be better. We know not the concealed rapidity, 
with which the grand process may even now be 
going forward. The seed, cast by the husband- 
man into the ground, is for a time apparently 



58 A DISSERTATION ON 

lost : but it springeth and groweth up, he know- 
eth not how ;— -first the blade, then the ear, after 
that the full corn in the ear. 

These are the imperfect rudiments of a plan, 
of which the object is undoubtedly one of the 
most glorious that can be conceived. To have 
extended our view, if such a measure had been 
consistent with the limits of the present Disser- 
tation, to it's more minute and particular details, 
would have demanded the local knowledge of a 
Hastings, united with the genius of a Burke or 
of a Jones. For us suffice it, to have sketched 
the civil and religious wretchedness of Hindos- 
tan, to have traced an outline for her improve- 
ment, and to have hailed her dawning glories. 
In the dispensations of Providence, extremes 
often introduce each other. In the common 
refracting lens the image, after receding (in 
consequence of the varied position of the ob- 
ject) through every various distance to infinity, 
suddenly re-appears inverted on the other side 
of the glass. The bloody conflicts of the two 
triumvirates, and the vicious refinement of the 
empire under Augustus, ushered in the Gospel 
of purity and peace. If the fierce reformers of 
Ghizni and of Tartary, roused at first by the 
crying pollutions of Indian idolatry, gradually 
exchanged their fury of conversion for the 



CIVILISING INDIA. 59 

phrensy of conquest, and destroyed pagodas 
rather from the love of their wealth than from 
an abhorrence of their idols ; if this mighty 
empire, founded by a Tamerlane, extended by 
a Baber and an Akbar, and carried to it's great- 
est altitude by an Aurengzebe, with the ordi- 
nary fate of vast usurpations at length fell 
beneath it's own weight, and made way for the 
merchants and through them for the missionaries 
of Europe, we may almost exclaim with Lucan, 

Scelera ipsa nefasque 

Hdc mercede placent. 

We see, in fact, an Almighty Power con- 
trolling the moral elements, as the obsequious 
servants of his will ; from physical evil educing 
social and civil good, and converting even the 
sufferings of his creatures into the means of 
their final salvation. 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

REV. XIII. 18. 



Tv\V ptV CCXpiGtlO!,]/ T7\q 4^1^)8, W? XMl TOC \017TQC TTipl 

toij y»<p8(riv. (Arethas in Apocal. xxxviii.) 

Quanto Me magis Jbrmas se vertet in omnes, 

Tanto, nate 9 magis contende tenacia vincla. 

(Virg. Georg. IV. 412.) 



JL O the number 666, by a remarkable con- 
currence, several different appellations of the 
Pope (it has been found) interpreted according 
to the arithmetical notation of their respective 
languages, accurately amount. I begin with 
the Hebrew. 

1- iTDVk signifying c the Roman' (Church) 
in the Jewish numeration j n?np5 ecclesia, ac- 
cording to Piscator, or as Newton says, HTT> 
' Beast,' or HD^D, ' kingdom,' being under. 

A 
[Only 50 copies printed separately.] 



2 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

stood.* (Daubuz.) This, says Pyle, as well 
as Aurstvos, is an appellative name, such as 
St. John means ; a name of a man, or body, 
or kingdom, or government of man, in a certain 
place and situation. No other word, in any lan- 
guage whatever, can be found to express both 
the same number, and the same thing. 

The following Hebrew conjectures are col- 
lected and dismissed by Wolfius in loc, who 
divides the critics on the verse into various 
classes. The first, the Cabbalists, he subdivides 
into the advocates of the Gematria, and of the 
Notarikon. Of the former description are 
Vitringa's rmm PlDn, his b*Ui HY) (where 
the D final, or 600, is lowered to it's medial 
value of 40 !) and his Adonikam, whose children 
are said by Ezra (ii. 13.) to be sLv hundred 
slvty and sir ;\ and whose name, though not 
numerically convenient, has (he adds) a very 

* In this explication of the mystic sum Jurieu agrees; ex 
cujus tanien nomine Hebraice scripto (fors. t^imy) eundem 
numerum elici posse quidam regis Gallia legatus, prceeunte 
Rich. Simone, per nummum cere expressum docuit. (Wolf, in 
he.) 

f This is also sanctioned by Hugh Broughton, whom Bright- 
man calls cc that learned man of our own country/' and who 
is cited by O shorn, in his ' Traditional Memoirs of the Reign 
of King James/ as " manifestly painting the fall of the Pope 
to the oily fancies of his readers." But, alas ! this number, in 
Neh. vii. 18, is said to be * six hundred threescore and seven !" 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX; 3 

pithy mystical meaning, c Dominus insur gens' 
sive c Adversarius; 9 vel c Adversarius Domini :' 
as Anti-Christ is pronounced, 2 Thess. ii. 4., 

V7ripxipGfjt.il/oq and aurmufxivog, 

John Fox, the Martyrologist, as I find him 
quoted by Paraeus, discovers it in t^WO% 

Matt. Hillerus in >£Htf D1&* where beside 
the inserted % the » paragogic performs a double 
function, by depressing the value of a to 40, 
and supplying a needful 10 ! 

Jac. Hasaeus in JTTDDj res venales ; sc. lm 
[ay\tis dwYiroa ccyopMcroii, n 7TcoA?](ro4t, quia Anti-Christ us 
emtione venditioneque omnium rerum ad lucrum 
spectantium diffiuit. 

Zach. Portzigius in fiYIDj Apo stasia, as mori; 
connected with the subject ; but he quickly 
leaves this true scent. 

Dr. Lightfoot in *nfiD 5 a name taken from 
Numb. xiii. 13,, meaning crypticum quid, she 
mysterium.f 

A black-letter writer quotes, and rejects, 
c Lateranus' in Hebrew letters (Qu. DWHfw?) 
and LVDVVIC in those of Rome; adding, 

* Nimirum rubet Anti-Ckristus a sanctorum sanguine ; et ct 
sanguine martyrum Jesu Bestia ; Rev. vii. 6, xiii. 7, xviii. 24. 

t This conjecture is sustained by Peter a Sam [Misc. Duis- 
burg.) who says, Sethuri numeris arithmeticus, nomen, tri- 
bus, familia, conditio, res gesta, peccatum, et exitus apprimc 
in Anti-Christi Romani conspirant persond ! 

A 2 



4 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

" and thus much by the way and occasion of 
Nicolaus de Lyra, Paulus Bergen, Matthias 
Dorinkus, the Author of c Fortalitium Fidei, 
and other commentaries more of the same fac- 
tion ; who writing upon this thirteenth chapter 
of the Apocalypse, and not considering the cir- 
cumstances thereof, both are deceived them- 
selves, and deceive many others : applying that 
to the Turk, which cannot otherwise be verified 
but only upon the Pope, as may appear suffi- 
ciently by the premises. Not that I write this 
of any mood or malice, either to the city of 
Rome, or to the person of the Bishop, as being 
God's creature : but being occasioned here to 
entreat of the prophecies against the Turks, I 
would wish the readers not to be deceived, but 
rightly to understand the simple Scriptures ac- 
cording as they lie ; to the intent that, the true 
meaning thereof being blotted out, it may be 
the better known what prophecies directly make 
against these Turks, what otherwise." 

From the Chronologies of Genebrard, Bellar- 
min * cites inblS (Luther) ; and adds, of his 

* " The name ' Bellarminus Jesuita * doth more elegantly by 
for yield us the number of the Beast, thus written in Hebrew 
KtDWDtf' DU'D^VVm ; — notwithstanding, I confess, Bellar- 
minus is not the Beast as yet, though perhaps he cleave to his 
horn." {Comment, on the Revelation, translated fr©m Parseus, 
fol.; where, among other things, it is proved by copious quota- 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. $ 

own discovery, mnO T31 (David Chytraeus) 
as amounting to the same number. 

J. Goth. Lakemacherus refers it to }TO&* "), 
i. e. Rabban Simon, who was made prefect of 
the Jewish Council by Herod Agrippa, and as 
he gravely states, was very like the latter 
Beast ! 

Lastly, Professor Hales of Dublin, in his 
6 Inspector,' suggests TOTO (Mohamed) mean- 
ing £v$o<roc^ c celebrated ; ' but makes it qua- 
drate by a double artifice so obvious, that the 
most timorous Mussulman may feel himself per- 
fectly secure upon the subject ; viz. by an arbi- 
trary duplication of the n> and by assigning to 
£ initial the value of tD final ! ! The first of 
these licences, however, he defends by the high 
authority of Sir William Jones, who speaks of 
a double aspirate in Muhhamed ( c Asiatic Re- 
searches,' I. 32.) ; and the second, by stating 
that " what is initial in Hebrew and Arabic is 
final in Sanscrit and European alphabets !"* 

tions, that " Franeiscus Petrarcha, a most eloquent philologer 
of Italy in his time/' wrote such things Anno 1370 against the 
Pontifical See, " as almost Luther never spoke worse.' ' See 
Mornay ' Mysterium Iniquitatis, 9 Salm. 1612, pp.1040 — 
1050 ; where Petrarch is pronounced sceculi sui lumen, apud 
Pontifices, si ahlandiri voluisset, nihil non consecuiorum. Some 
•ne has, also, found in J. Calvin, Hebra'ice (Qu. \L>yu>)hyp ») 
an equal amount. 

* With the same view, of proving the Arabian impostor to 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

2. Among the Greek solutions stands fore- 
most AcLTstvog, the name given by the East- 
ern to the Western branch of the Church, 
after the division of the empire. For the 
oriental Romans, in compliment to their mo- 
ther-city, denominated Byzantium Roma Nova, 
and the surrounding country Romania* To 
the objection, that we ought to write Accnvos, 
is replied, that c the ancients expressed i long 
by ei 9 as in qaeibus, capteivei,' &c. ; and to 
those, who allege the abundance of other is- 
arithmetic appellations, Parseus and More have 
answered, that this alone combines with the 
other characteristics of the Beast it's " seven 
heads" and it's " ten horns." # 

be the Beast, no less a commentator than Euthemius, the Patri- 
arch of Constantinople, in his Graecised name M«eo^s«s detected 
the ubiquitarian 666 : and thus is his name spelt by Zonaras 
iind Cedrenus. 

* And, in addition to this, as Dr. H. More expresses himself> 
they ' latinise in every thing.' See his ' Mystery of Iniquity,' 
II. i. 15, § 1, and Petr. Molinaei ' Vates,' p. 500, &c. Missa, 
Preces, Hymni, Litanies, Canones, Decreta, Bailee Latine 
conceptce sunt. Concilia Papalia Latine loquuntur. Ipsce 
mulierculec precantur Latine. Nee alio sermone Scriptura 
legitur sub Papismo, quam Latino. Quapropter Concilium 
Tridentinum jussit solam Versionem Vulgatam Latinam esse 
authenticam ; nee dabitant doctores earn prceferre ipsi textui 
Hebraico et Grceco, ab ipsis Apostolis et Proplietis exarato. 
Denique sunt omnia Latina : nempe Papa populis a se 
subactis dedit suam linguam, ut sui imperii notam et charac- 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 7 

This interpretation, by Irenaeus (the hearer 
of Polycarp, who was the disciple of St. John) 
pronounced probable, valde verisimile, Adv. 
Haer. v. 30, though Bellarmin of course vigor- 
ously opposes it's pretensions, seems to have 
been by far the most generally adopted ; and 
modern commentators of the highest character, 
Napier, Brightman, Dent, Sir Isaac Newton 
himself and his namesake prelate, Pyle, Low- 
man, Marsh, Faber, &c. still continue to main- 
tain it's claim to preference. See also Rosen- 
miiller, Eickhorn, and Limborch, TheoL Christ. 
VII. xi. 19, who candidly adds however, nihil 
certi definire prcesumimus — cum incertum ad- 
modiim sit ex numero liter arum alicujus nominis in 
unam summam collecto certum quendam hominem, 
cui nomen illud applicari potest, definire velle ; 
cum videamus unumquemque pro studio partium 
nomen effingere in quo numerum hunc inveniat, 
et eo adversarios suos premere, aut saltern ipso- 
rum argumentum ex nominis numero depromptun 
retorquere. 

Irenseus suggests also mi*Ba?i and Tsnocv* 

terem. Paraeus makes,, very nearly, the same obvious obser» 
vations. Upon Aaruvoc Salmasius has some remarks, in his Tract 
on Transubstantiation, as likewise upon Grotius' conjecture 
Ovtotos, mentioned below. 

* With regard to the appropriation of this name to Anti- 
Christ, as authorised by Hesychius, see Henley's ingenious 



8 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

Other Greek guesses are, api^g for ot?v*pu,i\ ' I 
renounce ;' zvivccg (a word, however, of Hebrew 
extraction) ; a^tthti?, barbarously for x^-mr-nq ; 
apvoq ahnos , uvts[aqs 9 qu. honori contrarius (Hay- 
mo in Apocal. col. 1529, fol. q. viii.) ; r^o-ti^x©? ; 
o viwwm (as the anti-type, of the Beast may, per- 
haps, Call himself) ; xotxoq ofayos ', ctXnSyg (3Aa€£po? ; 
fraXoci, $cc<rxcLVQc ; Bs££a dcvt&eos \ 2,ol%qvsios 9 for 2a£o- 

fiof (sc. Luther, BcllarmJ) ; Irax*** ExxA*<na, or 
ExXfjo-ia AaTtva;* 7rtxpa$o<ri<; 3 as the Papacy is a 
kingdom of Traditions, &c. &c. (See Method. 
II. &c.) But these latter, at least, are not 
" the number of a man." 

Clericus in his Supplement to Hammond's 
Paraphrase, with the true zeal of a system- 
monger contends, that Aio$ e^i % Hpccg ap- 
propriates the number to Paganism, as Jupiter 

£ Dissertation upon the controverted passages in St. Peter aad 
St. Jude (2 Pet. ii. 4, 6, Jude 6, 7-) concerning the Angels 
that sinned, and kept not their first estate.' These he inter- 
prets of the first Apostasy and rebellion upon earth, carried 
on by the sons of Chus under their imperious leader Nimrod, 
who took upon himself the sacred titles of Alorus, Titan, 
and Orion j whence his followers, called f Titanians' and 
c Atlantians/ might be designated as soi-disans AyysXoi. Bishop 
Haymo, however, interprets it of (( the Sun of Righteousness" 
more especially, who " rejoices as ' a giant' to run his course," 
and whose name Anti-Christ would not fail to usurp. 

* Where one » is omitted, and the diphthong st is commo- 
diously reduced to the simple i. 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 9 

and Juno were the principal Capitoline dei- 
ties ! 

Sturmius, in a German 8vo. upon the subject 
(Rostock, 1716) has collected many additional 
illustrations, all referring either to the name of 
some Pope, or to some badge or description of 
the Papacy ; sometimes indeed trespassing a 
little in the idiom or the orthography of his 
Greek, and sometimes in the numerical inter- 
pretation of the separate letters ! ! This has 
been proved by an adversary, who finds in 
Sturmii (Qu. Sti^u) nomine et conditioner Gr&cl 
descriptis, the all-pervading number. 

Wolfius bestows the praise of ingenuity on 
the conjecture of Lcescher (the conjecture, also, 
of Fleming) who by various dexterities dis- 
covers the triple characteristic of date, district, 
and denomination in Boniface III. For l . He 
accepted from Phocas the title of 'CEcumenical 
Bishop,' A. D. 606 ; and between that and 
B. C. 60., when Judaea first became a Roman 
province ! elapsed an interval of 666 years : 2. 
Aureivos gives his local designation ; and 3. B<w- 
&*£io? y Tio^TTcc gn'. E. E. or Bonifacius III., Papa 
LXVIIL, Episcopus Episcoporum, is his personal 
description ! 

" Alii" observes De Dieu in loc., " ex i 
y.icr<r<x, « 7rix7n<TYi, circum annum Christi 666 pri- 
miim cani cceptd, eundem numerum eliciunt" 



10 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

Grotius assigns OjAttio?, nomen notissimum 
Trajanis, si in fine scribas non 2, quod valet 
200, sed r vel C, quod et sigma ! et pro eodem 
numero (sc. senario) ponitur in Inscript. Grut. 
To which he adds (ingeniously, in H. More's 
opinion) Senarius numerus res hujus mundi sig- 
nficaty et Septenarlus res scbcuU melioris ; 
accounting for the implied censure of this prince 
from the persecution of the Christians in the 
tenth year of his reign. Against this inter- 
pretation, however, Poole adduces from More 
and Maresius six strong arguments, all inde- 
pendent of the objection founded upon the 
change of the final letter, which is in itself in- 
superable. For 2 is always 200 ; as in Iuc-a?, 
expressed in the Pseudo-Sibylline verses by 
an equivalent of 888 ; NsiAo?, which as con- 
taining the number of days in the year, is 
therefore (Napier remarks) celebrated as holy, 
&c. See a paper by Dr. Pegge, in the ( Selec- 
tions from the Gentleman's Magazine/ II. 41. 



3. The Latin titles of the Pope, VICarIVs 
generaLIs Del In terrls, and VICarIVs fILII 
Del,* occupy the next place. 

* This mot d' enigme, remarks an anonymous writer,, has 
also farther mystical applications ; for singula in universim 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. i 1 

Of other Latin guesses, as collected by Calo- 
vius in his e Bibl. Illustr? and in the c Crit. 
Curios. MiscelL 9 the most approved are paVLo 
V. VICe-Deo,* approved by Bishop Bedell; 
Kleschius' LVDoVICVst (xiv.) King of 

hitjus nominis element a, secundum numerum alphabeticum more 
Grcecorum et Hebrceorum disposita, tarn accedunt prope ut 
tribus saltern adscitis punctis eundem numerum expleant ; qui 
tamen ipse defectus quid mysterii in se contineat, et quo pacta 
rite suppleatur, alio Jvrtassis loco et tempore prodam ! 
jr abcdefghiklmnopqrs t u or t &c. 

Cy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 
By this scheme, Vicariusfilii Dei == 663. By a similar key, 
varying only in making v = 110, and a few other accommoda- 
tions, we have lately seen the fatal number applied to Napolean 
Buonaparte ; or with a happy variety of orthography, in the 
English vulgarism, and by the Greek notation, BovvsxeipTv ! (See 
Motto to Hioan's ' Thoughts on Prophecy.') Another finds 
the three Sixes in the eighteen letters constituting the name of 
that chieftain ! ! ! 

* Brocard finds, or makes, Pope Paul IV. equally conve- 
nient : first, as he was the sixth from Leo X. ! as six is, se- 
condly, contained in paVLVs (being sixty in. the Latin tongue!); 
and as I and V, his ordinal number — first disjoined, and then 
conjoined! — form the third six I Well might the Sr. des Accords 
say, in his * Bigarrures,' " Quelquun a ete bien deux ans & 
rechercher tous les noms des Papes, mais jamais n'a pic ren- 
contrer chose qui vaille." 

+ He finds a corroborative argument in the Three Lilies (Hex- 
andrian) of the ancient royal shield of France, which are in 
Hebrew called WW, as WW means six! Another writer brings 
down the reference to Louis XIV's successor. " The Beast," 
says he, " is the Constitution .; the War is the present persecu^ 



12 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

France; and Driessenius' Vna Vera Catho 
LICa InfaLLIblLIS eCCLesIa. 

I find also in Calmet, voc. ' Anti-Christ,' 
DIoCLes. aVgVstVs,* with the additional solu- 
tions \ D. f. jVLIanVs Caesar atheVs (or rather, 
he subjoins, D. f. jVLIanVs Caes. aVg.) *fl^ 
8t£T!pn WM9 c ° ur h°ty Father the Pope ;' and 
lastly, to show the vanity of conjecture, £HpH 
mrv >n& p*W> * the Most High, the Lord, the 
Holy Godl't Though he says very justly, 'many 

tion of the Reformed, which began March 1730, and will end 
September 1733. This is included in the name ' Ludovicus,' 
the numeral letters cf which amount to 666 : the rest of the 
King's title, DeCIMVs qVIntVs franCIae (or, gaLLIse) et 
naVarrae reX, makes exactly 1733!" &c. (Calend. Myst. r 
fondee sur V Apocalypse, et sur Esaie.) Here, by substituting 
for Quintus seXtVs, and subjoining gVIL. as the abridged 
name of the mnrtherous implement, by which (to descend 
lower still) the Sixteenth Louis was sacrificed, we get not only 
the date, 1793, but also the very mode, of his execution. 

* AiozXxo-iizvoc, both numerically, and as a persecutor, would 
have answered much better than Grotius' Ov^kloc. 

f The Jews, we are told, affect to discover this mark of 
Anti-Christ in the divine name of Jesus of Nazareth, nyj 
1E>>. Seethe { Key to the French Revolution,' by Triebner; who 
in another work entitled, c Christ is Risen/ states that 666 x 3 
(for three and it's multiples, from considerations of the number 
of persons constituting the Elohim, are his favourites) = 1998, 
which increased by seven, the days of the first week, and an 
additional three, reaches from the Creation to the birth oi 
Abraham ; 666x6 + 7 (again, but without the three) =4005 
the year of Christ's Conception, &c. &c. ! ! 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 13 

doubts have been entertained, as to the lan- 
guage in which the interpretation of this num- 
ber is to be sought, as well as the quality indi- 
cated by it — whether simply the person, or the 
dignity, or the name bestowed by his adherents, 
or the stigma impressed by his crimes.' 

But of these violent adaptations, which 
make the Chronogram they cannot find ? 
there is no end. Scarcely a single controversy 
has started up, in which this accommodating 
number may not be ranged on either side. The 
Anti-Calvinist may adduce his 'CaLVInVS trls- 
tls f IDel Interpres ;' and the Calvinist, thougli 
Arminius is protected by his M, may attack a 
senior antagonist with 'LVtherVs DVCtor gre- 
gls* in Roman, as well as above in Hebrew nu- 
meration. Feuardentius indeed, in his Notes 
upon Irenaeus, to retaliate upon the Protestants, 
expressly gives it to this most formidable foe of 
the Romish Church under his correct Saxon 
name of Martin Lauter, as interpreted by the 
key in the note, p. 411 ! The Neptunist may 
refer his opponent to c VVLCano eDItVs* 
(sc. orbis terrarum); and may have retorted 
upon him, in return, ' oCeanVs e prof VnDo 
tVlit!' — But it would be idle to chase the sha- 
dow any farther. 

I pass to the easier species of Jewish Cab- 



14 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

bala, the Notarikon, by which letters are made 
to designate words. 

666, Gr. ^£r, as M. Henningius informs us, 
may imply x?^ ov fatty™ ruvpw, Christum hos- 
pitantem (apud se) crucifigens, and refer to 
Julian ; or, according to Portzigius mentioned 
above, XP^P^X * £ u ^ s ^ rMpw/Kpopo;, Christi oppug- 
nator rasus coronam germs. 

Heumannus says, Anti-Christ has the show of 
Christianity before and behind : for x ls tne 
initial, and r the final letter (or, rather, the 
initial letter of the final syllable) of x? 1 ? ^ 
But, he cautiously adds, latet anguis in herbd — 
intus et in cute habet to £, qua est Jigura Ser- 
pentis, i. e. Diaboli. Rev. xii. 9, xx. 2. 

Napier observes, %gs is contained in x& > 
" the two extreme letters respectively agreeing 
in one, and the small disagreeance of the mid- 
dlemost (to wit, betwixt £ and f) being upon 
very necessity : for whereas St. John here speaks 
expressly of numeral letters, he could have no 
one numeral letter to represent both ^ and his 
crown, this was f , more like it nor £, whereof the 
upper part represents the crown and the nether 
part the figure of g. Moreover, there is yet 
greater affinity betwixt £ and g ; for ^, or rather 
£ after this form in the Greek, and £ in this 
Beast's language and common written letter in 
Latin is X, which is all one in figure ! &c." — 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 15 

*l As to the name of the Cross, in Latin Crux 
and in Greek ravpog, it is not possible for them 
to be expressed under so few letters more vively 
nor they are here ; for here have you their 
chief letters, even both their capital and their 
final — for by X and g have you in Latin C and X 
making Ctilv, or CH and X, making barba- 
rously Chrux, as I have seen and heard it so in 
print and pronounced : And again by the last 
letter ? have ye the Greek name of the Cross 
ruvpos likewise expressed, by his capital and final 
letters," &c. &c. 

A Second Class adopt a different system. 
Henr. Horchius contends, that the number in 
question must be resolved arithmetically into 
it's principles, either by dividing it, solitarie 
sped at um — his own theory ; or by extracting 
it's square root, which was Potter's plan \ m or 

* Poole, after some intricate and unsatisfactory calculations 
from Forbes, has given an abridgement of Potter's thin 4to. on 
the number 666, ushered in with a high and undeserved pane- 
gyric by More ; and by Mede characterised as follows : nihil 
unquamjelicius in illo tarn difficili argnmento in lucem prodii&se; 
nee librum hunc sine summo stupore, nisi ah incredulis plane, 
legi posse I In this Work a strong contrast is marked between 
the Christian number 144, with it's root 12, and the Anti- 
Christian number 666, with it's greatest integral root 2& 
With regard to the surplus remaining in the latter case, he 
coolly remarks, perinde illud est ; and assigns, as a reason 
for taking the number 666 rather than the perfect square 



16 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

by dividing it, and it's opposite 14,400 (the 
number of the Company of the Lamb, Rev. 
xiv. i.) unum per alterum, vel illius radicem. 
This last process was adopted by Cocceius, 
Herm. Deusingius, and I. C. Laersius. 

625, the necessity of * mystery to guard against the counter* 
action of the Beast/ with some others equally valid ! ! To the 
former numbers he refers the 12 Gates, literal or spiritual, of 
the New Jerusalem, with it's 12 Angels or Ministers, it's 12 
Tribes or Parishes, it's 12 Foundations or Apostles, it's 12 
thousand stadia literally expressing the solid measure of the old 
City, and it's 12 kinds of Fruits or Articles of Faith. On the 
other hand, in the Romish City (as we learn from Onuphrius 
ex Plin.) were literally 24 Gates, augmented by a Porta Tri- 
umphalis between the ages of Pliny and Justinian, and in her 
Hierarchy spiritually 25 Churches, 25 Cardinals at the first in- 
stitution (Baron. A. D. 309, &c.) 25 thousand stadia forming 
the solid measure of a Cube, whose perimeter is 116 or 117 
stadia or about 14 miles, stated by Lipsius and Onuphrius 
to be the circuit of modern Rome (and whose side there- 
fore is 29.24 + stadia, which cubed = 24,999-545024 -j-) 
25 Articles of Faith in Pius IV's Bull, according to the 
doctrine of the Council of Trent ; the frequent establishment 
of 25 Monks in a Monastery, 25 Pcenitentiarii Minores, 
and 25 Abbreviatores (Bzovius) 25 Altars in St. Peter's 
( Onuphr. ) beside the great one, upon which a crucifix is placed 
25 palms high (Angel. Rocca) it's figure, too, a perfect cube of 
25 feet (Baron., and Onuphr.) the 5 wounds of Christ marked 
upon the Romish Altars in 5 different places, whereas 12 is 
applied to Scripture- Altars, 1 Kings xviii. 31, Ezek. xliii. 16. ; 
their Jubilee for many ages celebrated every 25 th year, the 
25th day of the month most frequently a holy-day, &c. &c. &c 
and Hcsc, concludes Poole, ds nobili hdc qucestione dicta sunto* 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 1? 

J. Henr. Ursinus thinks, that reference is 
made to the 25 idolaters of Ezek. viii. 16., 
which number multiplied into itself produces 
625, significative of the corpus plenum, et in 
omnem partem quadrat urn, obduratum, immobile, 
ex omnium voluptatum appetentid in extremam 
Apostasiam prolapsum, 8$c. ; to which adding 
41 (1 to mark the caput, and 40 the anwersitas 
membrorum plena per orbem terraruin) we have 
666111 

It has even been surmised, that a remote al- 
lusion is intended to Dives and his five brethren^ 
Luke xvi. 28 ; six being the element, of which 
the number in question is exclusively com- 
posed. 

With an equal violence to probability Dr, 
Duport, in his c Poetica Stromata,' supposes it 
to contain some prophetical allusion to the 
Great Fire in London (kindled, if we may trust 
the Monument, by Papists) in 1666!— A con- 
ceit frigid enough, if we may adopt the not less 
frigid conceit of the old Critic, to have extin- 
guished the conflagration. (See Pearc. Not. in 
Longin.) 

Dr. Geddes, of Macaronic memory, records 
one of his friends (John Payne) as the 

Under this head> however, I may add the old prophecy, Ann^s 
Petri non attinges (25.) This fatal limit Pius VI. just 
reached, broke the charm, and overturned the Hierarchy! 

B 



18 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX* 



■Sacro prcedictum in codice Payneum 



which is thus perhaps to be solved, 
« o v 7T a, v (= the English y) v t\ 
10 70 50 80 1 400 50 5 

By the same system of numeration, the loyal 
subject finds the prophecy couched in ' Tom 
Paine Exile !' And the family-name of the late 
Pope, Pius VI., in Greek (Bpo-xi) amounting to 
333, he with his Nephew, the Duke di Braschi, 
which may imply the characteristical Nepotism 
of the Romish Church, jointly complete the 
sum ! While an enemy to Taxation detects the 
solution in 1 Kings x. 14., 2 Chron. ix. 13, 
where Solomon's revenue is represented to be 
iC six hundred threescore and six talents of 
gold." 

It is merely on the principle of compre- 
hension, that I introduce the conjecture TraTmo-xo?, 
" which may in some measure agree with Papa, 
or what we call in English < Pope ; ' " DIC LVX, 
of which Haymo says, c Ipse enim fatebitur se 
.esse lucem ;' r\ kXcc&ihx, (3ia (665), to which Alca- 
sar ineffectually labours to add another unit; the 
quadrature of the circle, which (as Dr. Hutton 
informs us, in his ' Recreations,' I. 365.) Henry 
Sullamar, a real Bedlamite, found in this num- 
ber ; the cow-pox (Qu. xov-Trox?) as asserted by 
a German physician at Frankfort ; the Pope's 
Learning, which that worthy man and great 
light of the Church Francis Junius bringeth^ 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX". 19 

chiefly now thai 6 the Sixth book of decretals 
hath been added to the five former by Boniface 
VIII. For this number is perfect,* and arising 
perfectly out of the parts thereof at some 
times ; neither is there any part of the Pope's 
law, which is not conferred to the head thereof, 
or is not contained in it. The Beast also teach- 
eth this name, and makes it to be as it were the 
mark of his members !' 

Aristobulus Eulabius, an assumed name, de- 
ducts one from " the seven heads" of v. 1., as 
natural to the Beast ; and upon each of the re- 
maining 6 or secondary heads places " 10 
horns," 60 in all, as upon each horn " ten 
crowns," 600 in all — making, collectively, 666 I 

Mayer observes, " As this Beast is said to 
have a number, it is evident other beasts de- 
scribed in the prophecy are to be enumerated 
with it \ and as beasts in prophetic language re- 
present either civil or ecclesiastical govern- 
ments, and it is said of the number of the Beast \ 

* This, Haymo correctly defines, qui primus in numeris 
eompletur partibus suis, i. e. sextd sui parte, tertid, et dimidid, 
quce sunt unum et duo et tria, quce in summa ducta sex Jaciunt. 
And it is the first perfect number, because (if we may adopt 
t}ie R. R. Commentator's theory) on that day God perfected 
his Creation. That his notion, however, of ' perfect numbers' 
differed from those of modern mathematicians appears, from his 
proceeding to assign particular reasons for the perfe6tness of 
10, 60, 100, &c. 



20 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

that it is the number of a man, therefore the 
Roman Emperors from Julius Csesar to Augus- 
tulus (who are typified by the Bear and Leopard, 
Dan. vii. 5, 6.) the Emperors of Germany, and 
the Sovereigns of those nations # on the Con- 
tinent of Europe, who are alluded to by the 
horns of Daniel's fourth and John's first Beast, 
with the Popes or Bishops of Rome from Linus 
to Pius VII., Sovereign of the Ecclesiastical 
State (the horn, that had a mouth speaking very 
great things, whose look was moi*e stout than 
his fellows) I suppose to be those, referred to 
numerically by the prophecy ; as they amount 
to the exact number of 665, and Buonaparte, 
the head of the French Government, who is 
represented by the second Beast, makes up the 
number 6661" (' Hint to England.') 

Selden himself did not think this number 
beneath, or beyond, his notice. (See his Works^ 
III. 2, 1402.) 

A Mr. Stephens, likewise, wrote a 'Disser- 
tation on the Name, Character, and Number of 
the Beast,' of which however I have never met 
with a Copy : and Mr. Bellamy, I am told, in 

* Qu. Does this include France, from Charles le Gros to 
Louis XVI.; Spain, from Pelagius to the present King, 
omitting Charles VI, (Why ?) ; Portugal, Bohemia and Hun~ 
fary, Poland, Denmark, so long as it's princes continued 
papists, and Sardinia and Naples f 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 21 

his c History of all Religions' proves, that it 
refers neither to Kings, Kingdoms, nor Popes. 
It is, also, adverted to in Malcolm's Work 
on c Caricaturing.' Of the German Divines, 
who have toiled in this field of conjecture, 
Wolflus has preserved many names, with the 
titles of their works, in his Notes ad loc. 



The Third Class, or the Chronologists, con- 
sider it as referring simply to dates. Pope Vita- 
lian (A. D. 657—672) as we are told by Gottf. 
Kohlreiffius on the authority of J. Balaeus, Act. 
Rom. Pontif. iii. 11., Ecclesiasticam Regulam 
scripsit, Horas Latinas, cceremonias, missas, ei 
idololatrias Latinas omnes in templis Latinb Jicrl 
disposuit ; and this, as Fleming states, A. D. 
666. In 663 and 664, likewise, the Pontiff 
continued to acknowledge, to some extent, the 
Imperial supremacy. It was only the year 666 , 
which in this respect meritb, nt primus illius 
potestatis, in Apocalypsi Joanned numeratur ! 
Bullinger and Lowman, also, interpret it of time. 

Mr. Kett thinks, with Lowman, Doddridge, 
&c. that 666 years elapsed between the time 
when St. John saw this prophetic vision (which 
he thus fixes to A. D. 90.) in Patmos, and the 
period at which " the Papacy received the tem- 
poral power and became the Beast, viz. A. IX 



22 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

756 : " for then Pope Paul I. received the exar- 
chate of Ravenna as a donation from Pepin, 
King of France. 

And Dr. Bryce Johnstone supposes them to 
be 666 lunar, or 657 solar years, commencing at 
the time of the vision, which he fixes to A. D. 
vulg. 95, more correctly 99, and ending at the 
same epoch, 756. He adds, that the three equi- 
valent periods assigned for it's duration, "forty- 
two months," "twelve hundred and sixty days,'* 
and " time, times, and half a time," or 1260 
years reduced to solar time make 1243, which 
gives 1999 for the end of the reign of Anti- 
Christ, and the year 2000 for the commence* 
ment of the Millennium ! Mosheim and Sigo- 
nius furnish him with long quotations, and for 
historical references he copiously cites Me- 
zeray. 

I possess a thin quarto Tract,* entitled 
c Romcz Ruina Finalis ' Anno Dom. 1 666/ 
which beside tracing this date in ALeXanDer 
7 epIsCopVs roMse, observes, that all the letters 
used as numerals by the Latins M. D. C. L. X* 

* This Tract written in the reign of Elizabeth, and re«* 
published with a dedication to the Protector by J. W. in 
1653, was sent ad Anglos Romce versa?ites, to repeat the 
warning, " Come out of her, my people," &c. Rev. xviii. 4, 
It's Epilogue, or Peroration, is signed WA. TH. RW. J&< 
SS. JW. 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE ANTD SIX. 23 

V. and I. conjunctively make up the critical 
amount ! Of these the three first are said to be 
adopted as initials of their respective values, 
{Milk, Dimidium Milk, and Centum ;) and the 
four remaining ones form Luxi, the preterit, both 
ofLuceo (sc. " I have said in my heart/' " I sit 
a queen," &c. Rev. xviii. 7.) and of Lugeo (" for 
in one hour is she made desolate," ib. 19) ! ! 
Taken however by pairs, the first two of Luxi 
added to the preceding three make up the very 
year of the publication, 1655, and thus appro- 
priate the application to the Pope Alexander of 
that day, the Seventh ; while the other two 
(but the author with unusual caution adds, 
quod dimnare non ausim) may indicate the pre- 
cise duration of his Pontificate ! 

The 1260 years, he suggests, reach from 
A. D. 406, when Honorius granted to Inno- 
cent I. rogatu hianti efflagitatione que eblandienti 
locorum prioritatem^ suffragium> et super om- 
nes Censuram. 



Amidst such a clashing of interpretations, 
Wolfius quotes from Irenasus, E* ya.% noxxa 

£f* roc Ivptcrxoptvoc ovofj.ix.Toe, iyowo>< rov ocvrov apt^ov, 

1T0IQV f£ QCVTOOV popElTSl Sp^O^SVOg, QriTYi^YiCTBTXl, 

From these varieties indeed of solution, con- 
taining however but a small part of the 



24 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

theories, which at different times have been 
propounded upon this inexhaustible subject, I 
think we have abundant reason to conclude with 
Kohlreiffius and Eulabius, qudcunque id in 
lingua finer it } cerium esse, hac ratione quidlibet 
ex quolibet, ex luce tenebras, et ex tenebris lucem 
fieri posse* Unde in gravitatem et sanctitatem 
Script urce S. omriinb peccant, quibus ex variis 
ejusmodi atque inanibus institutis nos velle sa- 
pientiores redder e videtur. We must explore, 
therefore, some meaning from considerations 
of dignity or generality more worthy of adop- 
tion. 

The Beast having seven heads and ten horns, 
and upon his horns ten crowns, has upon his 
heads (we are told, Rev. xiii. l.) the name of 
"Blasphemy.* That this term, particularly in the 
Apocalypse, t means renunciation of Christ, or 
Apostasy, the late Mrs. Bowdler in her c Prac- 
tical Observations on the Revelation of St. 
John' has satisfactorily proved. Thus, in the 
Old Testament, " Idolatry, as the root of all 
wickedness, is every where pointed out as the 

* In allusion to the heathen custom of marking soldiers and 
slaves. 

t See, likewise, Acts xxvi. 11. I compelled them to ^ blas- 
pheme ; i. e. to deny the faith. Our Saviour, also, himself is 
charged by the Jews with blasphemy, i. e. Apostasy from 
God, in assuming the Divine Attributes. 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 26 

cause of God's judgements on the Hebrews ; 
and I think, to those who consider the book of 
the Revelation, it will appear as plain a fact, 
that Blasphemy (so interpreted) is in the same 
manner the sin here pointed out, as being the 
characteristic of the latter times." — " From it's 
first chapter to it's last, Jesus Christ the Lamb 
of God, his faith, his testimony, is the great 
object set before us." — " He appears in the 
first, as in a state of glory: he claims the title of 
c Alpha and Omega,' and the other attributes 
of God : He receives the praise and worship of 
all created beings : He claims them as his own : 
He unfolds mysteries, he commands, he pro- 
mises, he threatens, as God." — " Apostasy from 
him, therefore, is the Blasphemy here spoken 
of 5* and the causer of this offence is justly 
called Anti-Christ." 

Hence have I ventured to suggest, as the 
solution of this long-disputed passage, the word 

ATTOfXTVlt;. 

In the identification of Blasphemy with 
Apostasy Dr. Middleton, the learned Bishop 
of Calcutta, Professor Bridge of the East 

* Whosoever shall deny me, him will I deny. Matt. x. 23., 
Luke xii. 9- If we deny him, he also will deny us. 2 Tim. 
ii. 12. He 3 that denieth the faith, is worse than an infidel. 
1 Tim. v. 8. See also 2 Pet. ii. 1., 1 John ii. 22, 23., Jude 
4., and particularly 1 John iv. 2, 3. 

c 



26 SIXHUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

India College established near Hertford, and 
Mr. Faber in private communications made 
to me agree. The latter says, " Sir Isaac 
Newton appears to restrict the word too much, 
in confining it to Idolatry considered merely as 
Apostasy from the worship of God ; " but he 
does " not see how h-rro^r^ can be called 
either the naifie of the Beast, or the name of 
some individual man. It is a word (he adds) 
descriptive of the qualities of the Beast, see 
Rev. xiii. 1 ; and it is a word descriptive of 
the qualities of a man, who is an Apostate : but 
it can scarcely be considered as e the name' 
either of the 6east, or of any man.— But I pre- 
tend not to say (he proceeds) that A7ror«w like- 
wise, as well as Aocrsivog, may not be hinted at. 
It, certainly, describes the character of the Beast 
very exactly ; and agrees, in a very curious man- 
ner with the very phraseology used by St. Paul 
in 2 Thess. ii. 3, and 1 Tim. iv. 1." He far- 
ther approves it, as having (in common with 
Autmo;) the advantage of being a Greek 
word ; justly deeming it " in the highest de- 
gree unnatural, that St. John should write in 
one language, and compute in another." He 
prefers, however, his original favourite; as 
AaTfivo? is at once the name of a man,* the 

* Bishop Newton, it may be observed, remarks that i( the 
number of a man" may mean only * a method of numbering" 



SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 27 

title of an empire, and the distinguishing ap- 
pellation of every individual in that empire. 

The Bishop of Calcutta, to whose piety, 
talents, and acquirements Preferment has only 
done justice, objects — if, indeed, he can be 
said to object — to my conjecture, merely from 
it's obviousness ; though it does not appear, as 
far as my reading has extended, to have occur- 
red to any of the numerous commentators, who 
have written upon the subject. 

I forbear to transcribe the testimonies borne 
to it by Mr. Thurston in his late publication, and 
in private letters by the highly respectable 
Dean of Lichfield, Dr. Woodhouse, and the 
Rev. J. H. Bromby, Vicar of Hull. 

The plain English arguments of Mrs. Bowdler, 
unconnected with numerical calculations in 
Greek (of which she was, probably, ignorant) 
appeared to me so satisfactory that, simply as a 
matter of curiosity and with no sanguine anti- 
cipation of the result, I computed the amount 
— not of Avos-ouns or Awor«<n«, for the number 
of the beast, we are told, is the number of a 
Man, but — of Airowrw, and found it to be 
exactly 666. If then it be farther considered 
that this quaint enigmatising stile, by which 



practised among men ;' and in this idea Pyle concurs. See Isai. 
viii. 1, Rev. xxi. 17, &c. 



28 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 

words and numbers are reciprocally commuted 
for each other, was in fashion in the decay of 
Greek literature ; * and that there is no reason 
to suspect of prudential motives, in the con- 
cealment of a personal name contemporary or 
remote, One who was shortly afterward a 
willing martyr, we shall perhaps deem the riddle 
least doubtfully solved by the generic word 

ATTCqctT/li. 

. * " It was a method practised among the ancients, to denote 
names by numbers; as the name of Thouth (®vv$) or the 
Egyptian Mercury, was signified by the number 1218 : the 
name of Jupiter, as H-Ap^jj or the beginning of things, by the 
number 737 ; and the name of the Sun, as jj^s Good, or Cm the 
Author of rain, by the number 608. St. Barnabas the com- 
panion of St. Paul, in his Epistle, ix., discovers in like 
manner the name of Jesus Crucified (sc. IH the two first letters, 
and T as the mark of his cross) in the number 318." (New- 
ton's f Dissertations on the Prophecies,' II. 298.) See, also, 
two Papers in the Monthly Magazine by Mr. Dyer on the 
isttygfot, or Verses containing Equal Numbers, X. 134, .212. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE 

ELUCIDATED. 

(ABRIDGED FROM BRYANT.) 



X HE object of Bryant, in his volume entitled 
* Observations upon Four Passages in Scrip- 
ture,' was to prevent the obloquy thrown upon 
them by some persons, in consequence either of 
their ignorance of the true purport of these 
narratives, or their unhappy disaffection toward 
the Sacred Records in general ; by showing 
that the Miracles related in them are pointed 
and significant, evincing not only supernatural 
power, but also a uniform reference to the cir- 
cumstances of the persons to whom they refer. 
The lateness of the discovery, arising from the 
depth of the proofs, leads us to infer, that there 
is store of additional (though unneeded) evi- 
dence still to be elicited in favour of the truth 
of the Scriptures; and also that there could 
not be any fallacy in the narrative, as no present 
advantage was to be expected from a scheme, 
of which the development was not to take place 
for two or three thousand years. 

A 

[Only 50 copies printed separately.] 



2 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

c The Four Passages' are, 

1 . Balaam, reproved by his Ass, Numbers, 
xxii. &c.; 

2. Samson, smiting the Philistines with the 
jaw-bone of an Ass, &c. Judges, xv. 15 — 19; 

3. Joshua, stopping the Sun and the Moon, 
Joshua, v. 15 ; and 

4. Jonah, entombed in the body of a large 
Fish or Whale, Jonah, i. 4 — 17. 



1. 

BALAAM. 

The Midian, of which Balaam was a priest 
(probably, from his great reputation, Numb, 
xxii. 6, the High Priest) residing at Pethor,* 
was an Edomite province of that name, to the 
east of the lake Asphaltites, peopled by the 
progeny of Abraham and Keturah, and not 
the similarly named region near the Red Sea, 
where Moses took refuge for forty years, Exod. 
ii. 15. Balaam indeed is said, Numb, xxiii. 7, 

* Called by the Greeks mr^x, and by Tacitus, probably (Hist, 
v. 13.) interpreted ' a rock ; ' instead of being explained from 
it's Hebrew etymology ins, ' a place of prophecy/ Peter, in 
the opinion of Hesychius, has this additional meaning ; and 
Patara, anciently celebrated for it's Lycice sortes, is probably of 
the same extraction. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 3 

to be brought from Aram, or Syria, and is still 
more fully represented, Deut. xxiii. 4, as of 
Aram Naharaim, or Mesopotamia: but if in 
both these passages, by the easy and not un- 
usual substitution of a ^ for a *?,* for Aram we 
read Adam or Edom, and dismiss Naharaim as 
is gloss, the whole becomes consistent. This 
we shall not hesitate to do, if we consider : 

1. That Naharaim means c the space between 
the rivers' (in this instance, the Euphrates and 
it's tributary the Aborras), whereas Balaam 
came from Pethor, " by the single river of the 
land of the children of his people ;"t 

2. That he came " upon his ass, with only 
two servants," Numb. xxii. 22, whereas the im- 
mense desert between Mesopotamia and Moab 
could only be traversed by camels and cara- 
vans ; t 

* The converse of this mistake, viz. a T for a n, occurs pro- 
bably Ps. cxxiv. 1 ; and 1 Chron. xviii. 2. Compare 2 Sam. 
viii. 12, and 1 Chron. xviii. 2, 3, 7, &c. 

f Numb. xxii. 5. This river, so particularised, cannot (as 
JLe Clerc supposes) mean, kcct tlo^v, the Euphrates ; but by 
changing, on the authority of many of the Versions, a single 
letter in the original for w reading iDtf or jd#, it becomes 
still more incapable of that interpretation, and signifies e of 
the children of Omar, Oman, or Anion/ a powerful tribe in 
Seir and Edom. 

J So it was traversed by Abraham's servant, Gen. xxiv. 19, 
and by Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 15; whereas the armies of Crassus^ 

A 2 



4 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

3. That he came on the joint requisition of 
the elders of Moab and of Midian, Numb. xxii. 
7, whereas there is no Midian or Pethor in 
Mesopotamia ; 

4. That he was met by Balak, " at a city of 
Moab which is on the border of Arnon, which 
is in the utmost coast 5 ,, Numb. xxii. 36, i. e. to 
the south of Moab, not toward the Euphrates, 
which was nearly north ; and, lastly, 

5. That on his way he was carried by his 
ass into " a field," and " among vineyards/' 
Numb. xxii. 23, 24; whereas Mesopotamia, 
though fruitful toward Armenia, on the side of 
the Euphrates is a perfect desert, without any 
grass or trees : and that no vines were to be 
found even at Babylon, we have the testimony 
of Herodotus (i. 193), while Moab, and Midian, 
and Edom were in a high state of cultivation 
in this respect.* 

These arguments, conjunctively taken, prove 
that Pethor must have been an oracular city 

Antony, Trajan, Julian, and Gordian, in their expeditions to 
Babylon and the east, went about by Syria north, and crossed 
the Euphrates at Zeugma or Cerusium, as well as the Assy- 
rian armies on their way to Judaea and Egypt. Solomon 
built Tadmor, or Palmyra, near the western extremity of the 
desert, for the use of travellers. (2 Chron. viii. 4.) 

* See Numb. xx. 17, xxi. 22. Isai. xvi. 8, 9. Jeremiah 
xxviii. 32, &c. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 5 

or temple in Midian (called, also, Edom) near 
Moab, of which Balaam was very probably 
the Archimage, or chief diviner. Here the 
worship of Baal-peor (the Peor-Apis, or Pria- 
pus, of the ancients) and, most likely, of his 
attendant the ass principally prevailed. This 
animal, in it's wild state remarkably beautiful,* 
and an emblem of liberty, Job xxxix. 5, was 
first (it may be presumed) made an object of 
veneration, in these thirsty regions, from it's 
peculiar sagacity — perhaps by snuffing up the 
air, and thence inhaling the moisture — in dis- 
covering springs of water.t The female ass 
had the farther recommendation of supplying 
nutriment, which in these districtst could not 

*Mart. xiii. 110. 

\ See Ps. civ. 2. To this faculty, we can hardly doubt, 
allusion is made, Gen. xxxvi. 24, where the word on*, trans- 
lated ( Mules,' should (on the authority of the Syriac Version, 
and the Vulgate) be translated { Waters ;' implying, that 
Anah first remarked this valuable instinct of the Ass, and what 
well deserved honourable record, taught it's useful application. 
His name, derived from vk, a fountain, appears to confirm this 
conjecture. Tacitus (Hist. v. 3.), with the venial mistake of a 
heathen and a foreigner, seems to have jumbled together the 
stories of Anah and of Moses (Numb. xx. 2) ; for it is, surely, 
not too refined in his rupes to trace the Pethor (jnrycc) in ques- 
tion. See Note p. 430. 

% So in Job's stock, which would naturally be adapted to the 
barrenness of his situation (whether Ur was an Arabian pro- 
vince in the neighbourhood of Midian, or actually a part of the 



6 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

be derived from the cow (though worshipped, 
on this very account, in the more fertile plains of 
Egypt), and was, therefore, probably preferred 
for the saddle ; as that both of Abraham, Gen. 
xxii. 3, and of Balaam is rendered by the LXX. 

*} cvo$. 

That the asinine species did not then bear 
it's present despised character, in the heathen 
idea, will appear — if we recollect, that asses 
carried Bacchus and Silenus, as well as the 
sacred vessels in the mysteries of Ceres ; that 
the first of those deities, indeed, was reputed to 
have placed them in the celestial sphere (as 
having saved him from a mighty deluge) with 
their Qarvy, or crib, itself perhaps a distant ad- 
umbration of the Ark ; and that both these 
constellations are reckoned ominous of sere- 
nity. * It proves nothing hostile to this obser- 
vation, that the Greeks t and more modern 

latter country she-asses are exclusively mentioned, as best 
suiting a sandy soil (i. 3, xlii. 12) ; for ce Edom's dwelling was 
of the dew of heaven from above ;" (Gen. xxvii. 39 :) whereas 
to Abraham, who was going to ' c a land of brooks of water " 
(Deut. viii. 70 Pharaoh gave both he-asses and she-asses, Gen. 
xii. 16. 

* Theocr. xxii, 2. They were, probably, placed in the heavens 
by the Edomites, their votaries ; as " the wisdom" ascribed to 
that people (Jerem. xlix. 7, Obad. 8.) doubtless, included astro* 
nomy. Dion, n^Mjy- 109. 

j Ova? xyot, Aypav, cy* <r*j#, ov» 9-fltyewfls, x, t. a. See Jerenu 
xxii. 19. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 7 

nations, by their proverbs and their usage of 
this unfortunate animal, have evinced a differ- 
ent opinion, or that Balaam treated his with 
so much severity ; as the imputed sanctity, in 
countries where the OvoXur^a, was established, 
did not extend beyond the enshrined indi- 
vidual. 

The general inferences, then, are 

1. That Balaam, a man highly gifted, but 
devoted to the foulest idolatries, and persever- 
ing (notwithstanding the denunciations of the 
Almighty) in his infatuated determination to 
serve Balak, * was reproved by his own oracle, 
which he then found to be invested with facul- 
ties loftier than even he had suspected ; and 
constrained, in deliquio, with words not his own 
to " bless those whom the Lord had blessed," 
Numb, xxiii. 20. This blessing, extorted from 
the mouth of an enemy, must have had great 
weight. 

2. A farther effect of the miracle would be, 
that Israel, seeing a fact exhibiting might 

* In reference to this obstinacy, if we adopt the idea (fa- 
voured by many of the Versions) that the ass only bent to the 
earth, or bowed down, in reverence to the angel, we may inter- 
pret a proverbial maxim current in the east, "not to proceed in 
any road, t<p' ov o oro§ okXuq-y), ' where an ass had bent it's 
knees.'" This maxim, Pythagoras (according to Hermippus, 
t*s tuv Ixhiim, often confounded with the Idumaeans, &|«§ 
fAifjwptvoi) subsequently introduced into his institutions. 



8 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

beyond that of the gods of Edom and Midian, 
would despise superstitions, by which they 
might otherwise (from their future contiguity 
to those nations) have been seduced. 

3. But a principal consequence is, the sub- 
stantiating of a prophecy delivered, received, 
and recorded by an enemy ; referring to events, 
many of which did not take place for several 
ages, till Versions of the Sacred History had 
precluded all interpolation. One part of it, 
in particular, demands remark: " He shall 
smite the corners, nntfD, of Moab (where 
the LXX. translation, iys^ovx?, af^yj**,* is pro- 
bably the best) and destroy all the children 
of Seth." Now Plutarch, in his 6 Isis and 
Osiris,' expressly identifies Seth with Typhon 
or Peor-Apis, in whose temple the OvoXocr^noo 
was practised by the Egyptians. 

It remains only to add, that Balaam, having 
taught Balak " to cast a stumbling block before 
the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed 
unto idols, and to commit fornication," Rev. 
ii. 14, returned home, Numb. xxiv. 25., and 
was there slain, xxxi. 7, 8.' 

* Meaning, perhaps, ' Magi, or Priests of the first order.' 
So Poti-phera, Priest of Phar, or the sacred Ox or Cow; Peta- 
phree, of Ree the Sun ; Petasacus, of the deified Crocodile ; 
Petosiris, of Osiris, &c. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. Q 

The EFfp, c the mountains of Kiddim,' or 
the east (it should be remarked) would ill apply 
to countries beyond the Euphrates which, as 
above observed, lay nearly north of Moab ; and 
may much more probably be interpreted of 
some eastern eminences, as distinguished from 
others in the west. Such were Hor and Seir, 
with respect to the Ereb, or western ridges; 
both described by Josephus, Bell. Jud. iv. 8. 
These ran parallel in a direction north and 
south, and the valley of Salt lay between them. 

Upon this subject, the learned Hugh Farmer 
wrote an Essay. Such, as can be amused with 
flippant levity on the text of Scripture, may 
consult the c Critical Remarks' ofGeddesupon 
the passage, who sets out with pronouncing the 
whole " to have all the air of a legendary tale," 
and comments on both the twenty-second and 
the twenty third chapter of Numbers in a man- 
ner grossly profane. His version of CDDS c hot 
baths,' in the story of Anah, and indeed every 
part of his work immane quantum discrepat from 
the acute, profound, and reverential disquisitions 
of Mr. Bryant. 

£. 

SAMSON. 

Samson had been bound, and delivered to 



<s\ 



10 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED, 

the Philistines at Lechi.* This name, as inter- 
preted by Aquila, Symmachus, &c. <na«y«v, and 
by Jerome and others maxilla, must have refer- 
ence to some animal ; and was probably, with 
it's namesake fountain (of which we are in- 
formed by Mich. Glycas) sacred to the Ass,t on 

* This, Jerome and Reland (' in his Palcest?) identify with 
Hormah, Jos. xv. 10, or Eleutheropolis : but Bryant thinks that 
Lechi was more properly the temple, and Hormah a city of 
Philistim, not far to the east of Gath, and (the real Eleuthe- 
ropolis) Azotus or Ashdod, and consequently the nearest to 
Hebron, whence Samson was brought captive, of any in that 
region ; this latter name being the substitute for the Hor and 
Hormah in Edom, Numb. xxi. 1, Josh. xii. 14. (See Jerom on 
Obad. 1, and Rel. ib. 750.) But the name of the city, 
Judg. i. 17, was most probably superseded, to give effect to the 
miracle connected with the name of the temple. 

•j- So m« ' Urbs Onagri/ near Kadesh, Petra in Edom, 
and many Grecian names of similar import, derived by the 
early colonisation of Greece from Egypt, Philistim, and the 
regions about Tyre and Sidon ; e. g., Leche or Lechaeum near 
Corinth, above which lay what Strabo calls rot. or net opt) and 
Thucydides opos ovuov. The fountain Pirene in it's neighbour- 
hood, discovered by Pegasus (who found Hippocrene by his 
foot) is most probably from «ns, ' Onager. 9 So, near an old 
statue of an ass at Nauplia in Argolis, ran a stream called 
Amymone : now On is the primitive name of this animal, 
whence Or*yp*o$, or Onager, and Amera. (odh) or Aqua 
Asinaria. So, likewise, owymB-cs (precisely the same as 
Lechi-Chomar) mentioned by Strabo and Pausanias on the 
coast of Laconia, near the ruins of some Egyptian temples, 
&c. So, lastly, B-^ui omen, near Lyons in Gaul. 

There was also, it may be added, a Petra in Macedon (or . 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 11 

account of it's peculiar instinct in discovering 
water, and it's being here, as well as in Edora 
and Midian, reputed oracular. On this hypo- 
thesis, then, the object of the miracle, per- 
formed with the fresh jaw-bone of an ass upon 
the worshippers of that animal, was (like that of 
Balaam) two-fold ; to prove the superiority of 
the God of Israel to the Canaanitish deities, 
and to deter the Jews from being smitten by 
the epidemic idolatry. It was, indeed, the 
drift of all Samson's preternatural operations, 
more particularly to bring into abomination 
with the Israelites Baal-peor, or Priapus, the 
god of fountains. 

If there were here a Petra, or temple of 
divination, as Bryant conjectures from the 
Philistines having assembled* at this place to 

rather, in Illyricum) near Dyrrachium, called also Lechi (Pal- 
lad. Fuse.) which farther proves the conformity in ritual wor- 
ship among all the cities named Petra. 

* Their solemn encampment seems to imply, that some pecu- 
liar honour was intended to one of their deities, who probably 
had a temple at this place. The freshness of the jaw-bone 
apparently involves a recent sacrifice, and feast upon the victim. 
The ass was a common food in the districts near Ishmael and 
Edom, and what they themselves fed upon, they usually offered 
to their gods. The oblation of asses, among the Hyperboreans 
and Scythians, is said by Callimachus to have been particu- 
larly grateful to Apollo. Strabo mentions it, likewise, as a 
Persian custom: and Mirmcius Felix reproaches the Romans 



12 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRTPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

receive Samson, Judg. xv. 9, the name imposed 
upon it (Ramah Lechi, Gr. Avat^o-*?) in conse- 
quence of that chieftain's subsequent victory, 
would imply not simply c the casting away of 
the jaw-bone,' which was only a typical action, 
but also the rejection of Lechi and it's idolatrous 
worship. 

That Samson did not slake his thirst at this 
fountain, which like many others in Egypt, 
Greece, and the east was esteemed sacred, 
might arise from his fears of the Philistines, ver. 
18, or from the curse recently denounced against 
it and it's rites. He, therefore, invokes God for 
assistance ; and a miraculous discharge of water 
takes place from the jaw-bone, which he calls 
En-Haccori, c the fountain of invocation.'* 
The subsequent phrase, " which is in Lechi at 
this day," implying any thing of long duration, 
(1 Kings, xii. 19. 2 Chron. iii. 8. Deut. xi. 4. 
Josh. xiv. 4,) by no means identifies this tem- 

with both worshipping and devouring these animals, practices, 
which had undoubtedly been introduced with the Isiaca Sacra. 
Pliny, H. N. viii. 44, records it as common in Africa. Beth- 
phage, ' the temple of the jaw/ must have been, not as Origen 
states (in Matt, xxi.) a residence of the Jewish priests, who 
had the jaws of the victim, but a temple of this Canaanitish 
idolatry. 

* LXX. nsr/>j tv tvMctxVfAtfit, implying perhaps that spiritual 
health was to be found, not in the polluted channel of Lechi, 
but in the living water of the ( inyoked' God of Israel. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 13 

porary supply with the fountain Lechi, which 
(notwithstanding it's apparently appropriated 
name) is described by many authors as long 
prior to Samson's time ; but refers to it's natural 
antecedent, the name En-Haccori, which with 
the connected miracle was for a considerable 
period preserved at that place. 

To the objection, that c the jaw-bone could 
not contain water enough for the purpose,' may 
be opposed the widow of Sarepta's cruse of oil, 

1 Kings, xvii. 15, the oil of the Shunamite, 

2 Kings, iv. 6, the loaves and fishes of the N. T. 
&c. if indeed an objection, professing to limit 
the operation of an avowed miracle, deserves 
any answer. 



The story of the foxes with the firebrands, 
represented Judg. xv. 4, 5. as doing effectual in- 
jury to the enemy, is vindicated by Ovid's Fast, 
iv. 681, 707, (passages which imply, though the 
author himself affirms the contrary, more than 
a solitary instance of mischief) to justify a 
general and annual memorial, and is farther ex- 
plained by Lycophron's xa^a^s* and Suidas, 
voc. v£W£ia. The Roman celebration of the 

* ' A fox with a firebrand at his tail/ as Cassandra, ver. 344, 
calls Ulysses, with reference both to his cunning and to his 
mischievousness. 



14 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

festival, c Vulpium CombustioJ recurred about 
the middle of April, when (as Bochart, in his 
6 Hieroz.' remarked) there was no harvest in 
Italy. Hence, it must have been imported 
from a warmer climate ; and from Buhle, CV 
lend Palcest.y we learn that at Jericho, ineunte 
Aprili triticum jlavescere jam et maturescere 
incipiebat, et hordeum maturescit. 



3. 

JOSHUA, 

That the verses 13 and 14 of Joshua x. are 
interpolations, is highly probable from the words, 
" Is not this written in the book of Jaslier ?"* 

* ' Jasher ' recurs 2 Samuel i. 1 8, as referring to circum- 
stances by some centuries posterior to this event. He must, 
therefore, himself have been far removed from the days of 
Joshua, of which he writes ; and his quoter, of course, still 
farther. A similar instance is found in Numb. xxi. 14, where 
a marginal comment must have been admitted into the text; as 
" the wars of the Lord" only commenced at the time alluded 
to, and writing itself is supposed to have been introduced by 
Moses, who in that case could not refer to any prior writer. 
Jasher does not appear, from Josephus, to have made part of 
the Jewish canon. Whether, indeed, it be the name of an 
author, or of a treatise, is unknown ; as in Origen's Hexapla 
we read im B&*us m Evbisc, and in the Vulgate, in Libro Jus- 
torum. Grotius endeavours to resolve the whole miracle into a 
poetical embellishment, or a reflexion of the sun from the 
clouds for some hours after his setting ! 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 15 

succeeded by the actual quotation, " So the 
sun stood still, &c." The former part of verse 
13, " And the sun," &c. appears to be a 
gloss of the quoter. 

The passage most probably refers to the 
idolatrous worship of Gibeon and Ajalon, where 
(as in other parts of Canaan*) we have reason 
to think, were temples of the sun and the moon, 
whose oracles were now to be silenced, and 
with them the superstitions of the surrounding 
districts to be suppressed. Against the esta- 
blished interpretation it may be alleged, 

l. That the mention of the places, over 
which these two luminaries are supposed to 
have stood, is very unsatisfactory. An army 
extends to a great distance. If to Joshua the 
sun appeared to " stand still upon Gibeon," to 
those who were east or west of him it would 
appear eastward or westward of that place 
respectively. All specification of place, indeed, 
would have been totally superfluous, if the ob- 
ject had been simply to gain time to pursue the 
enemy. 

The same, and even greater, difficulties 
occur with regard to the moon. For the moon 
could never be seen so near the sun, as both to 

* Beth-shan, Beth-sur, Beth-meon, Beth-baal-meon, and 
Bethshemesh (which Jerome, in his ' Onomast.,' interprets 
Domus SolU) very near Ajalon, &c. From pV, ' the moon/ 
were derived Labanah Libnah, M. Libanus, &c. 



16 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED, 

seem stationed over objects in close vicinity, 
which (it appears from Eusebius, Jerom, Epi- 
taphium Paulae, &c.) was the case of Gibeon and 
Ajalon. Neither indeed could her full light, if 
she had been in the opposite part of the heavens, 
have been of much service in the presence of 
the sun. Besides, she is injoined to stand still 
" in the valley of Ajalon :" 

2. The duration of the day could not be 
measured. They had no time-keepers, and 
dials would be useless : 

3. The battle too was now over, ver. 1 1 , and 
the storm come down. u Then spake Joshua, 
&c." The prolongation of the day, therefore, 
was unnecessary. 

Lastly; The enemy had been chased to 
Beth-Horon, and thence had fled to Azekah* 
and unto Makkedah, cities farther to the 
south, in the neighbourhood of Eglon and La- 
chish. Joshua's whole progress from Gibeon 
had been southward, with the sun before, and 
Gibeon and Ajalon nearly behind him. 



In favour of an alteration of the version, it 

* The Israelites must have stopped at Beth-Horon, or they 
would have suffered equally with their enemies from the storm. 
They had previously, indeed, made a forced march, which would 
render rest necessary for them, as they had performed in one 
night what had before cost them two. (Numb. ix. 17-) 



POUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 1*7 

may be considered that the word tDH? trans- 
lated Cf stand thou still," properly signifies^ 
* remain thou silent/ and is so interpreted by 
Montanus* and others. In the first of the spu- 
rious verses a different word is used, 1Sy»% 
which proves that the passages in the two 
verses, \1 and 3 3, are from different writers. 
Jasher, indeed, has not a word about the moon, 
neither can his " midst of heaven" be referred, 
with any precision, to " Gibeon and the valley 
of Ajalon." 

Gibeon, which was one of the royal cities 
(Josh. x ? 3) was, very probably, guilty of 
the prevalent idolatry. It's name, from 3?^, 
\ a hill,' and On the sun, implies this. So like- 
wise Ajalon t (pW) denotes ( the place (or 
shrine) of the moon,' whose temple, we find, was 
in a valley; and Benjamin of Tudela informs us, 
that Christians still call this place 6 Vaal de 
Luna. 9 As the gods and the altars, however, of 
this friendly people had been left untouched by 

* Sol, in Gibhon, site, &c. So Aquila, a-tuxx ; and Symma- 
chus, ttocvtov. The LXX. alone have trr/jrw: the Latin, however, 
pf the Syriac and Arabic Versions concurs with it. The Vul- 
gate translates, Contra Giboan ne movearis. Qu. Is our word 
f dumb ' to be traced to this origin ? 

\ Lun among the ancient Hetrurians, Germans, &c. signified 
I the morn/ and Ai or Aia, in the language of Egypt, ( a 
place.' 

B 

[Only 50 copies printed separately,] 



18 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED*. 

the new comers, to them this victory might 
possibly by both be ascribed. To wean there- 
fore the one, and to deter the other, from this 
impious superstition more effectually than by a 
mere arbitrary edict, Joshua " in the sight of 
Israel said : 6 Sun, upon (the high place of) 
Gibeon, be silent ; and thou, Moon, in the 
valley of Ajalon,'" ver. 12. Then properly 
follows, ver. 15, " And Joshua returned," &c. 

c These words Joshua undoubtedly, in his zeal 
to establish the worship of the true God, 
uttered rather as a prayer than as a command. 
His wish w r as accomplished ; for Gibeon, sub- 
sequently, bore a high religious character. * 

The above correction is strengthened by the 
consideration, that neither the Prophets, the 
Psalmist, nor St. Paul, although they often 
refer to the divine miracles, ever mention the 
circumstance of the sun's standing still (Grot. 
in loc). The only allusion to it occurs in the 
Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, xlvi. 1, 4. t 
where however, by a double mistake, the sun 

* 1 Kings, iii. 2, 4. It appears, indeed, to have stood next 
in holy repute to Shiloh and Jerusalem. 

f Hahakk. iii. 11. obviously, from the context, refers to the 
passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, the grandeur of 
the Deity descending on Mount Sinai, and his moving all 
nature. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 19 

is said to have " gone back" instead of stand- 
ing still, and " one day to have been as long 
as two." 

L 

JONAH. 

The history of Jonah is attested by our 
Saviour, who would never have appealed for 
the illustration of a fact to a Galilean apologue 
or novel. His date is not quite certain, but 
that he was prior to Jeroboam appears from 
2 Kings, xiv. 25. Gath-Hepher, in the tribe 
of Zebulon (as well as Nazareth, a few miles to 
the south of it) was in "Galilee of the nations;"* 
so that out of Galilee did arise prophets,t John, 
vii 9 41, 42. Coming from a mixed people, he 
was probably of unsettled principles (though 
like Balaam, Numb. xxii. 18, and the old pro- 

* So called from it's vicinity to and intermixture with several 
Gentile states, the remains of the Canaanites or aliens from 
Tyre, Hamath, and the cities of Syria, as well as probably 
some of the Philistines, Josh. xix. 13 ; and even Gath-Hepher 
might be so named, to distinguish it from Gath of Philistim. 
The contagious effect of this neighbourhood was such, that few 
of the Galileans went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Pass- 
over. 

y A prophet however the Jews, probably on account of his 
refractoriness, did not, apparently from this passage, allow him 
to have been. 



20 four Passages of scripture ExuciDAXEbi 

phet, 1 Kings, xiii. 1, represented as " a servant 
of the Lord ") or he would not have thought it 
possible to elude his power.* He never, indeed, 
showed any regard for duty, except under 
divine constraint ; and, when that was removed, 
he returned to his old superstitions. This 
might be the cause of employing him upon 
the present occasion, to evince the supe- 
riority of Jehovah to both the prophet and his 
deities. 

The forbearance of his shipmates was much 
greater, than that of the Jews toward the true 
prophet of Nazareth; of whose death and resur- 
rection Jonah's hymn in the fish's belly, " Thou 
hast brought my life from corruption, &c." (as 
well as Ps. xvi. 10.) is strictly vaticinatory. 

Upon his arrival at Joppa, as not disinclined 
to the prevalent idolatry, he appears to have 
put himself under the protection of the female t 
deity of the place, a large Fish or Whale under 
the name of Dercetis or Derceto, whose sup- 
posed daughter Semiramis, according to Ovid, 
Met. iv. 44., was changed into a Dove (!W, 
Jonah) Luc. de Ded Syria, Diod. Sic. S« 

* If the Tarshish here mentioned were the Tartessus of 
Spain,, he attempted to flee as far as, in the existing state of 
geographical knowledge, he well could. 

f Colitur istic fabulosa Ceto. (Plin. H. N. v. 23.) This 
Hesy chins calls 3wA#<r<r<o$ <£$t/$ x-oifApivy&iiu 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATE^. 2l 

These two objects were worshipped not only 
in Palestine, but likewise in many parts of 
Syria. 

1. Dercetus is an abbreviation of the Greek 
Ara^-yung, or Atarcetus, i. e. Venus Piscis*, 
under which name that goddess was adored at 
Hierapolis.* From both Strabo and Hesychius 
we learn, that Atargatis, whom Ctesias iden- 
tifies with Derceto, was also called Athara; 
and this, or AS-w£> (Etymol. Mag.) is the name 
given to Venus by the Egyptians,! among 

* Called also Bombyce, in Syria. Here, according to 
Lucian (De Dea Syria) she was represented as half-woman 
and half-fish. Some have pronounced Atargatis a composition 
Atar-dag (:m, * Piscis') but Bryant prefers Atarcetus. 

t At Atarbeck in Egypt, Venus A tar was worshipped, 
(Herod, ii. 41.) and, probably, under this appearance. Beck is 
the same as the Hebrew Beth ; and signifies ' a city,' as well as 
' a temple,' in the ancient Coptic. Bachi, noXv. (Woide's Lex. 
Copt.) Thus Bal-bec was ' Beli CivitasJ 

At Ashdod, also, there were similar rites, as we learn from 
Diod. Sie. ii., who mentions likewise Semiramis ; and farther 
informs us that, at Ascalon near Joppa, she had only the head 
of a woman, the rest being fish. Desinit in piscem mulier. 
The human part, perhaps, proceeded out of the mouth of the 
fish (like the Indian Vishnod) both there, at Ashdod, and at 
Joppa. At Ashdod, however, the deity was masculine, and 
worshipped under the name of Dagon, 1 Sam. v. 3, where what 
remained standing was probably Dag, or the fish-part; the 
human head and palms having been cut off by falling before 
the captive and insulted Ark of God. These deities were once 
worshipped in Canaan, exclusive of Plglistim or Palestine 



22 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

whom she, or her equivalent Isis, is likewise 
denominated AS-u^ (Plut. Is. et Osir.) and, in 
the character of Atargatis, this deity was also 
represented as a Cetus. Manilius, Astron. iv. 
580. says., she transformed herself into a fish $ 
and Ovid, Met. v. 331. that she concealed her- 
self in one, to escape some great danger. She 
was, in fact, the same as the Venus Marina, 
whom the Greeks denominated noma, Eth- 
7tovtioi 9 ilsAayja, &c. all with reference to the sea. 
She is constantly represented as Queen of the 
Ocean, Orph. Hymn. 28., Her. et Leand. 249., 
Ov. Fast. iv. 91, 105., # Hor. Od. T. iii. 1., 
Lucret. i. 3, 8., Apul. Met. xi. &c. This 
accounts for Jonah's particularly applying to 
her upon this occasion. 

2. Jonah, c a Dove,' was an appellation 
deemed applicable to one sent upon a divine 
mission j and hence, among others, John the 
Baptist had his name. To Venus Jiovroyeviq 
this mystical bird was especially consecrated, 
from it's having announced to Deucalion, at sea 
iv t*j xogvax^ good or bad weather (Plut. De So~ 

Proper, 2 Mace. xii. 26., Josh. xv. 41., andxix. 27.,' where the 
Beth-dagon in Asser's portion, " reaching to Zebulon," must 
have been near Jacob's city, Gath-Hepher. 

* The two last-named poets assign her marine influence to 
her extraction, calling her avxwxopc, &«A«er<r>j$ and orta mart 
<Ep. Her, xv. 213.) respectively. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 23 

Urt. Anim.) Hence it was much venerated, 
chiefly by the natives of Babylonia, Syria, and 
Palestine,* and wherever Atargatis was wor- 
shipped : and from it many cities had the name 
of Icoi/7], as Antioch in Syria, Goza near Joppa 
(Steph. Byz.) and even the sea upon this coast, 
from Gaza to Egypt, was called imiw. 

Jonah therefore, residing as above stated, 
was most likely one of the Ionim, or wor- 
shippers of the Dove and Cetus, and might 
thence even have had his name given by the 
people of Gath-Hepher, as a prophet and a 
priest.t It is even probable, that he had offi- 
ciated at their altars. He did not go to Tyre 
or Sidon to take shipping, but to Joppa, the 
primitive seat of this idolatry; J having greater 
faith in his own deities, whom he had adopted 
from the Philistines, than in Astarte and Baal. 
In the storm, however, like Naaman, 2 Kings, 
v. 1.5. and even Balaam, who yet was devoted 
to Baal-peor, he owned that, " he feared God." 
His direction to the mariners, w Cast me forth 

* Tibull. I. vii. 18. Phil. Apud. Euseb. Prsep. Evang. viii., 
and Diod. Sic. ii. 

t Jonah, in many countries denoted ' a priest,' xfdpqTnt t*$* 
<E€p«Mt$ (Hesych.) or priestess, Herod, ii. 54. See Soph. Tra*- 
chin., Pausan. vii., and Horn. Odyss. M. 62. 

% The very ship, in which he sailed, had perhaps the insigne 
of the Ceto. 



%4f FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

into the sea ; so shall the sea be calm," he must 
have uttered by a divine cogency, Sbqttvzvg-to; ; 
otherwise, he could not have been so certain of 
the physical consequence. The moral conse- 
quence was still more happy ; for the mariners, 
seeing the miracle of the whale, " offered a 
sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows." They 
were appalled at witnessing a real Leviathan, 
against which their emblematical one had no 
power, swallowing up a strenuous votary of their 
superstitions. This they would naturally report 
on their return, and it would quickly afterward 
be confirmed by the stranded Cetus disgorging 
the prophet ; an event, which would brand 
with disgrace their boasted empress of the seas. 
The enormous bones of a sea-animal, long 
preserved and reverenced at Joppa, whence 
Pliny (H. N. v. 25.) informs us, they were car- 
ried to Rome to be exhibited by the iEdile M. 
Scaurus, seem to confirm this account.* These 
bones were preserved the more naturally, from 
the monster's being thrown so far inland, as to 
lodge Jonah stti g»pai/. This implies a low coast: 
and such that of Joppa is ; the water being shoal 
from Gaza to the Nile, so tjiat Hasselquist was 

* See Pomp. Mel. i. 11. That these huge relics could have 
no connexion with the fable of Perseus and Andromeda is 
obvious, from the scene of the latter being laid in ^Ethiopia. 
Apollod. ii. 4., Hygin. Astron. ix. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 25 

carried ashore (he tells us) on men's shoulders., 
and the road at present, according to Pocock, 
admits only boats. 

Now fishes of this magnitude are never 
seen in these, or the neighbouring seas.* The, 
one in question, therefore, must have been sent 
from the north for the purpose to be stranded 
on a shore, where a huge fish was an object of 
worship, 

This miracle therefore, as well as the pre- 
ceding three, was significant and appropriate: 
there was an analogy between the crime and 
the punishment. At Carthage, or at Tyre, 
the propriety would have been lost. 



P. S. Bishop Lowth, in a note to his Praelect. xxiii. D* 
Sacra Poesi Hebrceorum, observes ; Bis citatur Liber iw* ; 
primd Josh. x. 13., ubi quae inde proferuntur manifeste sunt 
Poetica, ac tria quidem Disticha conficiunt— rtum in Threno 
Davidis, 2 Sam. i. 17 — 27. Notus est Hebraeorum mos Libras 
suos ex prima cujusque voce inscribendi ; ut n^^ll Genesis, 
niTI Numeri; vel ex praecipua aliqua primae Sententise vocq: 
sic idem Liber Numerorum vocatur etiam nmna. Videmus 

* The one, stated by Zonaras to have been killed in Severus* 
time with fifty bears in it's body ! and a second, said to have 
infested the Euxine, &c. under Justinian, from it's love of 
sailors' flesh, for fifty years (Procop. iii., Mich. Glyc. iv,) 
are not easily to be swallowed in these days. 

C 



U6 FOUlt PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 

etiam apud eosdem Cantica, insigni aliqua occasione edita, 
hujusmodi forma, qua ea notetur oc'casio, induci : w i« sive 
ltp*i »JdV^ »:n^S, sic nit>D vttf» IK, Exod. xv. 1. (Samar. legit 
ntL>») mm ")ti>m Jud. v. i. Vide etiam Inscriptioneni Psalm! 
xviii. Itaque Librum Jashar fuisse opinor aliquam Syllogen 
Canticorum Sacrorum, variis de rebus et diversis temporibus 
conditorum, eumque habuisse Titulum ex eo, quod et ipse Libef 
et singula pleraque Cantica cum voce *itr»l inciperent. In ea 
sane opinione fuisse videtur vetus Interpres Syrus, qui in ho- 
rum locorum altero vocem hanc reddidit per *vttm> hoc est, 
cecinit (cujus Interpretation, inquit Arabs eum in hoc loco se- 
cutus, est Liber Canticorum), in altero hujus Tituli significa- 
tionem ipse exposuit voce Knnittfm, id est, Hymnorunv* 

From this etymology however, it ought to be added, the 
learned Lecturer's Commentator, Michaelis, dissents; both 
because Vttf*, not lty», signifies canebat, and that it has the 
prefix n, 1tt>>n ; though he admits, that Lowth has by his 
other arguments sufficiently proved it to have been a collection 
of Poems. 

The miracle itself the German theologian resolves into a 
figure; partly as the light of the Moon, even if her full light 
could be shed at the same time with that of the Sun, would be 
of little service ; partly as Habakkuk iii. 11. describing the same 
event says, at the light of thine arrows they went (which* 
though Calvin explains the passage of the weapons of the Israe- 
lites, in prophetical poetry called f the arrows of God,' Michaelis 
interprets e lightnings ') meaning, the flashes accompanying 
the hail storm lit up the night with sunlike splendor. He also 

* The Dirge of David Lowth conjectures from v. 18., parti- 
cularly as translated by the LXX. to have been called < The 
Bow ' ; in reference either to the Bow of Jonathan, v. 22. or 
to the ' Archers ' of 1 Sam. xxxi. 3. Michaelis thinks nttfp may, 
also, signify metrum, i. e. carmen metrice composition ; which 
Professor Hunt, however, doubts. 



FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 27 

thinks the physical consequences, which would result from an 
apparent cessation of the sun's or moon's motion, as connected 
with the considerations of centrifugal force, the doubled and 
intolerable heat of the tropical regions, the flowing of the tides, 
&c. insurmountable objections to the common version, even if 
the end to be attained, the destroying of quantilla pars incola- 
<rum Asice, had presented a knot more worthy of a God I The 
attempt to establish the fact from the ancient Tables of Eclipses 
of the Chinese (Gent. Magazine, Nov. 1758, pp. 512, 513.) 
he encounters by modestly suggesting his doubts of their 
authenticity, as their later astronomical calculations are said to 
have been corrected by the Jesuit missionaries, and their re- 
moter records of every kind are of very doubtful faich. 



ARTICLES 



SUGGESTED FOR A 



VILLAGE COW-CLUB, 

{Communicated to the Reports for bettering the 
Condition of the Poor, v. 156 — 160. Number 
cxxxix.) 



1 . X HAT a Treasurer and a Commissioner 
or Commissioners, without stipend, shall be 
elected for each District within the circuit of 
this Institution : 

2. That, in the event of one or more of the 
said Officers dying or declining to act, the 
vacancy or vacancies shall be supplied by such 
person or persons, as a majority of Subscribers 
in their respective Districts by letter or assent 
otherwise signified shall elect : 

3. That each of the Subscribers shall pay half- 
yearly (May 12, and November 12) for each Cow 
by him or her admitted, after the rate of one 
halfpenny per £ upon her value per calendar 
month, into the hands of the Treasure/ of the 
District ; which sums, when amounting to 
£20 respectively, shall be placed at interest 

> 

[Only 50 copies printed separately.] 



1 VILLAGE COW-CLUB. 

till wanted, to accumulate for the benefit of 
the Fund : 

4. That no Cow shall be admitted without 
the approbation, and valuation, of the Commis- 
sioners or one of the Commissioners of the Dis- 
trict, to whom (if required) she shall be sent 
for inspection : 

5. That, upon the death of any Cow so 
admitted, the Commissioner or Commissioners 
of the District shall inquire into the manner of 
it ; and if it appear to have been caused by the 
wilful neglect of the Owner, or by his or her 
refusing to employ such farrier as they may 
have appointed (the excess of whose bill above 
One sixth of her value shall be paid out of the 
Fund) he or she shall receive no- benefit from this 
Institution : but, with this exception, for each 
Cow so admitted and dying there shall be paid 
Five sixths of her estimated value, in no case 
however exceeding =Sl2 ; her hide, tallow, &c. 
to be sold for the purposes of the Fund :■ 

6. That when the subscriptions shall amount 
in each District respectively to ^S per Cent. 
upon the aggregate value of the Cows admitted, 
the half-yearly payments shall be suspended, 
until the respective Funds shall be reduced by 
losses beneath that proportion, when they shall 
again be renewed : and, if in consequence of 
additional losses resulting from any other cause 



VILLAGE COW-CLUB. 3 

than a murrain, those Funds prove inadequate 
to the claims upon them, each Subscriber shall 
contribute, in .proportion to the value of the 
Cow or Cows by him or her admitted, to supply 
the deficiency : 

7. That no Subscriber shall receive any bene- 
fit from this Institution, upon the death of a 
Cow above Fourteen years old : 

8. That if upon any accident the Commis- 
sioner or Commissioners for the District deem 
it necessary to have a Cow slaughtered, the 
Owner shall have the option of receiving the net 
value of her carcase, after the expenses of 
slaughtering are deducted, or Five sixths 
of her value, as entered in the books of the 
Club: 

9. That every Subscriber, not making his 
payments on the days appointed by the third 
Article for that purpose, when the Fund is 
incomplete, or within fourteen days after 
notice in writing from the Treasurer of the 
District, shall be excluded : 

10. That all disputes upon the meaning of 
any par f of these Articles, or of the purposes 
of thL institution, shall be determined by the 
Commissioner or Commissioners of the District 
wherein they occur, subject to the control of a 
General Committee, to be subsequently elected 
from the whole Circuit. 



4 VILLAGE COW-CLUB. 

As some Subscribers may only insure a part 
of their Stock, it will be necessary to have 
the Animals insured ascertained by some Mark 
or Brand, upon the horn or elsewhere. 



REMARKS. 

By this plan the rate of payment is proportioned, in Art. 3., 
to the value of the Cow insured. 

The sum paid by the Fund on the death of a Cow, by Art. 
5., never exceeds a certain proportion (Five sixths) of her value, 
nor a certain absolute sum (£12); the first restriction ope- 
rates to keep alive the owner's interest in her recovery, and 
the latter to prevent his dealing in these animals with any 
other view than to the nutriment of his family. 

Even the moderate payments, directed in Art. 3., are sus- 
pended by Art. 6., as soon as a moderate per centage is raised 
upon the aggregate value of the Cows admitted ; as the object 
of the Institution is simply to provide against the probable 
contingencies of the ensuing six months, and a new call for 
contributions to supply deficiencies may always be made upon 
the next following pay day. This is abundantly effected by 
three per cent. ; which, if the full value were paid on the 
death of a Cow, would cover the loss of about one in thirty- 
three, but by the existing arrangement of paying only Five 
sixths, will cover the loss of one in twenty-eight. 



It is obvious, lastly, that though primarily intended for the 
benefit of Cottagers, this Institution admits Farmers and other 
opulent Owners of Cows to insure them ; as there is nothing, 
in it's composition, of an eleemosynary nature. 



ON VILLAGE-LIBRARIES. 



x HE chief design of the first of the preced- 
ing Assize-Sermons, I need scarcely remark, 
is to recommend the unreserved communica- 
tion and strenuous enforcement of ( the 
peculiar truths and precepts of the Gospel/ 
This should constantly be attempted in the 
school, and from the pulpit; and will, perhaps 
not less effectually, be accomplished (among the 
lower classes, in particular) by supplying them 
with books, to occupy agreeably and usefully 
their hours of leisure. The school-boy may be 
negligent, or the congregation drowsy : but 
what is subjected to the faithful eyes of the 
voluntary student, qu<£ ipse sibi tradlt^ will not 
quickly or easily be forgotten. 

From the present prices however of books, 
which scarcely any but the opulent can pur- 
chase (and not even they, for the purpose of 
gratuitous and general distribution) as well as 
from their inexhaustible variety,, which involves 

[Only 50 copies printed separately.] 



2 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 

the ignorant in the extreme hazard of frequently 
choosing wrong, the establishment of select 
Village-Libraries seems highly desirable : and 
the principles, upon which such an establish- 
ment may most advantageously be conducted, 
and the publications in which those principles 
appear most happily exemplified, become con- 
sequently necessary and, indeed, very import- 
ant topics of inquiry. The two projects, which 
I have seen suggested upon this head in print, 
are both in the one thing needful wretchedly 
defective. I hope, therefore, that I shall be 
considered as strictly within the line of profes- 
sional propriety, when I take the liberty of 
laying before the public a third. 

If the shelves are to be loaded with the 
County Agricultural Reports, Gregory's Cyclo- 
pedia, Dickson's Agriculture, A System of Geo- 
graphy and Arrow smith 9 s Maps, Mayor's Uni- 
versal History, Johnson's Dictionary, Hume's 
and Belsham's History of England, The 
Monthly Magazine, The Annals of Agricul- 
ture, The Oxford Review, and The Journal 
Modern Voyages and Travels ; * a clergyman 

* See Monthly Magazine, xxiv. 28, 29- In justice how- 
ever to both the plans alluded to, it should be added, that 
their views are professedly secular ; and, that, as a subscrip- 
tion is exacted from all who are to profit by them, they seem 
intended chiefly for the classes of middle life. 



OX VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 3 

may pardonably hesitate to solicit subscriptions 
for their purchase, or to lend his vestry for 
their reception : because, however respectable 
some of those compositions may be in other 
points of view, they are all (professionally 
speaking) out of his way, as to religious improve- 
ment, which ought always to be a primary 
object for the great mass of village-readers. I 
question, indeed, whether the publishers of any 
of them, with a single exception or two at the 
most, would not deem their pages contaminated 
by the admission of what they would sarcasti- 
cally term c evangelical nonsense,' for the use of 
these humble scholars ; though it was the glory 
of the Divine Founder of Christianity, that he 
preached the gospel to the poor, 

Mr. Riddel's plan, reported in a letter from 
Robert Burns to Sir John Sinclair,* seems 
little better adapted to the true interests of the 
students under contemplation. What may be 
the literary appetite of the Scottish peasantry, 
I own myself incompetent precisely to estimate. 
Without any derogation from the intellectual 
credit of the South, they may be allowed, I 
apprehend, in consequence of the universal 
institution of Parish-schools in that part of the 

* See his Works by Currie, ii. 272. For an interesting 
account of the Scottish Parochial Schools, &c. see ib. i. 4, and 
App. No. 1. not. A. See, also, Monthly Magazine, xxiv. 106. 



4 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 

island, to rank considerably higher in informa- 
tion than their English brethren. Yet, even 
with this concession, what are we to think of the 
following selection ; Blair s Sermons, Robert- 
sons History of Scotland, Humes History of 
the Stuarts, The Spectator, The Idler, The 
Adventurer, The Mirror, The Lounger, The 
Observer, The Man of Feeling, The Man of 
the World, Chrysal, Don Quixote, Joseph An- 
drews, &c. ? We see here, along with some of 
the constitutional characteristics of the poet, 
the operation of prejudices national and personal 
in abundance; prejudices, in themselves un- 
doubtedly often amiable and salutary, but 
putting Scotland and Mackenzie out of the 
question, what do we see besides ? Certainly, 
very little that is religious. 

Neither of those collections then seems likely 
to achieve, for the inferior orders of the com- 
munity, any valuable ends. It is not to make 
the peasant a theorist in agriculture, a smat- 
terer in history, and a pedant in philology ; or 
to polish his taste, to stimulate his feelings, and 
to gratify his curiosity by periodical essays 
and sentimental or satirical novels, that Esta- 
blishments of this kind should be encouraged. 
The instruction necessary for his temporal 
purposes he will best acquire, in early life, at a 
parochial school ; and the superfluities or luxu? 



Ott VILLAGE LIBRARIES 5 

ries of learning he must, throughout life, be 
contented to forego. The rudiments of science 
are, usually, the least pleasant ; and he will 
seldom, under the most favourable circum- 
stances, be enabled to make much progress in 
it. His principal enjoyment therefore, accru- 
ing from his superficial studies, would be to 
find himself a little less ignorant, and a great 
deal more arrogant, than his idler neighbours ; 
to puzzle by explanation, and to triumph in the 
village-circle without an antagonist. Whether 
such accomplishments would enhance his merit, 
or improve the tranquillity of his parish, let the 
projectors of those collections themselves de- 
cide. 

The claims of the soul appear, in both the 
above schemes, to have been studiously neg- 
lected : and yet, if we indeed believe that it 
will survive c the wreck of worlds/ and subsist 
to eternity, it's education may well demand no 
trifling portion of our regard. It is not,, how- 
everj by every species of religious disquisition, 
that this purpose would be promoted. The 
most popular and beneficial perhaps, next to 
the word of God, would be Tracts which 
should neither perplex by their abstruseness, 
harass by their diffusion, nor fatigue by 
their prolixity ; which should be, in three 
words, Perspicuous, Interesting, and Short. 






6 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 

If with these were combined the essential qua- 
lities of Piety, Fulness of ideas, and an Accom- 
modation to the various situations and contin- 
gencies of humbler society, there would be 
little wanting, with the Divine Blessing, to 
excite attention or to reward it. 

That they should be rendered Interesting in 
particular by incident, or dialogue, or general 
vivacity of composition, appears an indispensa- 
ble requisite. It has long and justly been 
complained, that ' Sermons are less read than 
Tales.' The chief attention, therefore, upon 
this occasion should be to select Books, where 
narrative and precept are so intimately blended, 
that in seizing the first, even gross apprehensions 
may imperceptibly lay hold on the latter. It is 
by such books alone, that the cottager can be 
lured back from the alehouse-corner, and the 
boon companion, to his family and his own 
fireside. He will read them to his children, or 
his children will read them to him, with equal 
instruction and entertainment; and amidst 
their innocent questions, and his own simple 
replies, the evening will glide more happily by, 
than if spent in the torpor of dozing or the 
tumult of a debauch. Works of this descrip- 
tion however, it is to be regretted, are at 
present comparatively few; but, with the 
increased demand, they would rapidly multi- 



ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 7 

ply. Neither would the writer in many 
instances, it may be presumed, derive from 
them less benefit or less pleasure than his 
readers. They would not, indeed, naturally 
lead him to fame or to emolument : but they 
might withdraw him, if a clergyman, from 
unclerica] amusements ; they might beguile 
him, if a resident in the country, of many a 
solitary hour; and they might furnish him, what- 
ever were his profession or his place of abode, 
with many a copious theme for profitable medi- 
tation and discourse. In superintending the 
Institution, likewise, a minister would find it a 
delightful duty carefully to exclude every thing 
noxious, and to adapt it's contents with judi- 
cious variety to the young, the gay, the vigor- 
ous, the declining, the melancholy, and the 
aged. To assist in it's formation, he would 
abridge himself, were it necessary, of many 
enjoyments ; and think it no trouble to crave, 
for the same object, the contributions of his 
wealthy and well-disposed neighbours : to pro- 
vide for it's reception, he would resign, were it 
necessary, not only his vestry, but c a room in 
his parsonage-house.' And for indulgences 
renounced, labour incurred, and sacrifices 
exacted, he would feel himself more than 
repaid by the improved morality and extended 
heavenly-mindedness of his grateful parish* 



8 ON VILLAGE LlBRA&IEg. 

It's mechanism should be extremely simple, 
The clerk or schoolmaster of the village might 
attend on Sundays for half an hour prior to the 
beginning of the service, to receive the books 
returned, and to deliver those required ; enter- 
ing their names or number, with those of their 
borrowers and the dates of their delivery and 
return, in a page divided into four columns for 
that purpose. From this the clergyman might, 
with very slight trouble, draw up a list of the 
works which each of his parishioners has 
perused, and regulate his conversation with 
them accordingly. He might likewise, through 
the agency of his librarian, unsuspectedly insi- 
nuate appropriate works into the hands of parti- 
cular readers, as they frequently take whatever 
volume is offered for their perusal. 

The only condition imposed should be, a 
proper care of the books. 

If the benefit of such an Establishment may 
be measured by the avidity, with which it has 
been received in my own parish (Hun man by), 
it is great indeed. Of nearly a hundred vo- 
lumes contained in it's catalogue, though it has 
yet been little more than a twelvemonth in 
existence, there are rarely half a dozen left 
upon the vestry-shelves, and thirty upon an 
average are exchanged every week. 

To the variety of tastes, which may be 



ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 9 

employed in appreciating the merits of the 
books selected, it is highly probable that some 
of mine may appear more or less objectionable. 
But it should be remembered in vindication of 
him, by whom they have been presented, that 
books, like their authors, have universally their 
faults ; and that those of both classes c are the 
best, which have the fewest.' Amidst the petty 
discords too of those received into this selection, 
which merely mark the inconsiderable diffe- 
rences of the schools whence they have respec- 
tively issued, the ordinary reader (it is trusted) 
will readily distinguish a grand and general 
harmony, such c as never was by mortal finger 
struck.' Should any of them indeed, along 
with lighter demerits, be represented to dispute 
the necessity or to omit the recommendation of 
Faith as the root and Holiness as the fruit of 
unremitting Earnestness in the pursuit and 
unfeigned Humility in the practice of Christian 
virtue, he will instantly expunge it's name, and 
farther thank the detector for the substitution 
of another less liable to exception. 

Beside the books, which I have enumerated 
in the c Reports of the Society for better- 
ing the Condition, &c. of the Poor,*' viz. 

* See V. p. I69—I72., Ed. 12mo. No. CXLI., with the 
subjoined Observations extracted from Dr. Charters' Sermons. 



10 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 

The Religious Tracts by the Society for promot- 
ing Christian Knowledge, 12 vols., The Cheap 
Repository Tracts, 3 vols., The Cottage-Library, 
2 vols., The Pilgrim's Progress, Doddridge's 
Remarkable Passages in the Life of Colonel 
Gardiner, Gilpin's Lives of Trueman and At- 
kins, The History of Susan Gray, and The 
Vain Cottager or The History of Lucy Frank- 
lin ; my list includes at present Doddridge s 
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, 
and his Sermons on Regeneration, Murray's 
Pozver of Religion on the Mind, <$c, The 
Life and Death of Margaret Whyte, Ma- 
claurins Sermon on the Cross of Christ, Han- 
way's Domestic Happiness promoted, Mrs. 
Trimmer's Family-Magazine, 3 vols., her Fabu- 
lous Histories, her Servant's Friend, and her 
Two Farmers, The History of the Dobson 
Family, Robinson Crusoe, The Contrast, The 
Work-House, The History of Betty Thomson, 
Hardie's Extracts, Edgeworth's Parent's As- 
sistant, 6 vols., and Popular Tales, 3 vols., 
Law's Serious Call, Buck's Anecdotes, Neale's 
Sacred History, 4 vols., Amusement- Hall, and 
Memoirs of Experimental Religion Delineated, 
Hill's Village- Dialogues, Collier's Voyages, De 
Foe's Family -Instruct or, Humanity to Animals, 
Wakefield's Instinct Displayed, Mrs. Taylor's 



ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 11 

Lessons to Servants, Selloris Abridgement of 
the Holy Scriptures, Pious Country-Parishioner 
Instructed, Cottagers Religious Meditations, 
Farmer Truman's Advice to his Daughter 
Mary on her going to Service, Gastrell's Chris- 
tian Institutes, History of Mary West ley, Isaac 
Jenkins, The Religious Tradesman, Burders 
Village- Sermons, 5 vols., Dialogue between a 
Churchman and a Methodist ', Port ens' Summary 
of the Evidences of the Christian Religion, 'lis 
all for the best ; with the following publications 
of the Christian Society not comprehended in 
their Collection of Tracts, as Seeker's Lectures 
on the Catechism, Wilsons Principles and Du- 
ties of Christianity, Burkitt's Help and Guide 
to Christian Families, The Whole Duty of Man, 
Melmoth's Great Importance of a Religious 
Life, Greene's Discourses on the Four Last 
Things, The Trial of the Witnesses of the 
Resurrection of Jesus, Jones' Book of Nature, 
Nelson's Practice of True Devotion, Peers 9 
Companion for the Aged, and Essay on the Hap- 
piness of a well-ordered Family. Of several 
of these, recommended more particularly either 
by their subject (the Duty of attending Public 
Service, the Lord's Table, &c.) or their popu- 
larity, duplicates have been procured ; and 
for the sake of more extensive circulation, 



12 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 

they have been strongly bound in half or 
quarter-volumes.* 

The total expense of the selection, I believe, 
has very little exceeded five pounds ; and half 
that sum annually expended henceforward will, 
I am confident, not only fully meet the neces- 
sary c wear and tear' of the Institution, but 
also contribute occasionally to it's enlargement. 
Can such a sum be employed, in any other mode 
of chanty, with an equal chance of doing equal 
good ? 

This, it should be added, by no means pre- 
cludes the occasional distribution of small tracts 
on religious and moral duties ; which may 
justly be regarded as at once a promising, easy, 
cheap, extensive, and effectual way of doing 
good. Each tract should contain, at least, c no- 
thing but the truth,' and (affirmatively) some 
account of the way of a sinner's salvation by 
Jesus Christ. 

* The British Critic of October 18Q9, recommends the ad- 
dition of the very valuable sets of Bampton, Boyle, Moyer % 
and Warjurton Lectures. But these would, generally, surpass 
the comprehension of Village-readers. 



VIRGIL'S 

BUCOLICS. 



• — Neque ego Paraphrasim esse interpretationem tanlum volo j sed circa 
fosdem ssnsus cerlamen atque amulationem. (Quint, x. 5.) 



[Only fifty Copies printed separately.] 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 



I. TITYRUS. 



Mel. Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi 
Sylvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena : 
Nos patriae fines, et dulcia linquimus arva ; 
Nos patriam fugimus : tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra 
Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvas. 5 



Tit. O Melibcee, deus nobis haec otia fecit : 
Namque erit ille mihi semper deus ; illius aram 
Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. 
Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum 
Ludere, quae vellem, calamo permisit agresti. 10 

Mel. Non equidem invideo ; miror magis : undique totis 
Usque ade6 turbatur agris. En, ipse capellas 
Protenus aeger ago ; hanc etiam vix, Tityre, duco. 
Hie inter densas corulos modo namque gemellos, 
Spem gregis, ah ! silice in nuda connixa reliquit. 15 
Saepe malum hoc nobis, si mens non laeva fuisset, 
De ccelo tactas memini praedicere quercus : 
Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice cornix. 
— Sed tamen, iste deus qui sit, da, Tityre, nobis, 



Tit. Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Melibcee, putavi 20 
Stultus ego huic nostrae similem, quo saepe solemus 
Pastores ovium teneros depellere foetus. 
Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus haedos 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 



I. TITYRUS. 



Meliboeus. Beneath this beech you, Tityrus, thrown 
at ease 
Pour through the reed your sylvan melodies : 
We quit our homes, our pleasant native plains ; 
We our dear country fly ! You trill your strains, 
As love inspires, stretch'd careless in the shade, 5 

And Amaryllis echoes through the glade. 

Tityrus. O Meliboeus, to a God I owe 
This blest repose : to him, as God, I bow ; 
And oft a youngling of my fleecy brood 
Shall stain his hallow'd shrine with offer'd blood. 10 

He gave my herds, as here you see, to stray ; 
And me to breathe at will my woodland lay. 

Mel. Your lot I envy not, but more admire — 
When all the region shakes with storms so dire ! 
Lo ! I my goats urge fainting o'er the mead : 15 

This, feebler than the rest, with pains I lead. 
Yean'd 'mid yon hazels on the flinty plain, 
Her dying twins, my flock's late hope, remain. 
Oft (had I mark'd it) to myself, and fold, 
This whelming ruin the scath'd tree foretold ; 20 

[The left-hand raven oft, with prescient croak, 
Distinctly boded from the hollow oak !] 
— But who this God of your idolatry ? 

Tit. The city they call Rome, ah silly me 
I fondly thought might like our Mantua be ; J 25 

Where oft we, shepherds, drive our tender lambs — 
Their sires so whelps resemble, kids their dams. 

B 2 



ri 



4? VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 

Noram ; sic parvis componere magna solebam. 

Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes, 25 

Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi. 

Mel. Et quae tanta fuit Romam tibi causa videndi ? 

Tit. Libertas, quae sera tamen respexit inertem; 
Candidior postquam tondenti barba cadebat : 
Respexit tamen, et longo post tempore venit, 30 

Postquam nos Amaryllis habet, Galatea reliquit. 
Namque, fatebor enim, dum me Galatea tenebat, 
Nee spes libertatis erat, nee cura peculi. 
Quamvis multa meis exiret victima septis, 
Pinguis et ingratse premeretur caseus urbi ; 35 

Non umquam gravis sere domum mihi dextra redibat. 

Mel. Mirabar, quid maesta deos, Amarylli, vocares ; 
Cui pendere sua patereris in arbore poma. 
Tityrus hinc aberat. Ipsae te, Tityre, pinus, 
Ipsi te fontes, ipsa hasc arbusta vocabant. 40 



Tit. Quid facerem ? Neque servitio me exire licebat, 
Nee tarn praesentes alibi cognoscere divos. 
Hie ilium vidi juvenem, Melibcee, quotannis 
Bis senos cui nostra dies altaria fumant. 
Hie mihi responsum primus dedit ille petenti : 45 

6i Pascite, ut ante, boves, pueri; submittite tauros/" 

Mel. Fortunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt ! 
Et tibi magna satis ; quamvis lapis omnia nudus, 
Limosoque palus obducat pascua junco. 
Non insueta graves tentabunt pabula fcetas; 50 

Nee mala vicini pecoris contagia lsedent. 
Fortunate senex, hie inter flumina nota 
Et fontes sacros, frigus captabis opacum ! 
Hinc tibi, quas semper vicino ab limite saepes 
Hy blaeis apibus florem depasta salicti, 55 

Saepe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro. 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 5 

Thus mighty things I measured by the mean ! 

But high o'er other cities Rome is seen, 

As the tall cypress o'er the osier's shoot. 30 

Mel. And what to Rome seduced your vagrant foot? 

Tit. Freedom : who, though her visit late she paid, 
Approach'd at length my long-neglected shed ; 
When ripening age now clad with grey my chin, 
And Amaryllis ruled the heart within. 35 

That heart, I own, while Galatea sway'd, 
Hopeless was freedom, profitless my trade : 
Though many a victim issued from my fold, 
And many a cheese to Mantua's dames I sold ; 
Yet unproductive were my thriftiest pains, 40 

And ne'er return'd I burthen'd with my gains. 

Mel. Oft have I wonder'd, why with sorrowing cries 
Thou, Amaryllis, did'st invoke the skies ; 
For whom thine apples linger'd on the spray : 
Now, 'tis explain'd — thy Tityrus was away ! 45 

Thee, Tityrus, thee the pines, the brooks, the bowers 
Call'd, fondly call'd from Rome's imperial towers. 

Tit. What could I do ? For there, and only there, 
Freedom I hoped, and Gods to hear my prayer. 
There first to view that heaven-sprung youth was mine, 50 
Yearly to whom twelve days shall flame my shrine. 
First, to my suit propitious, there he spoke ; 
" Feed boys, as erst, your herds, your bullocks yoke." 

Mel. Happy old man ! to you then shall remain, 
For you sufficient, your dear native plain ; 55 

Though shingles here the sterile wild o'erspread, 
And there the fenny bulrush rears it's head. 
With no new food your yeaning ewes shall faint ; 
Your herds no neighbouring herd with sickness taint ! 
Happy old man ! here by this hallow'd spring, 60 

These well-known streams, the breeze it's health shall fling : 
Here by the neighbouring hedge that bounds your farm a 
Whose willow-flowers allure their busy swarm, 



6 virgil's bucolics. 

Hinc alta sub rupe canet frondator ad auras ; 
Nee tamen interea raucae, tua cura, palumbes, 
Nee gemere aeria cessabit turtur ab ulmo. 

Tit. Ante leves ergo pascentur in aethere cervi, 60 
Et freta destituent nudos in litore pisces ; 
Ante, pererratis amborum finibus, exsul 
Aut Ararim Parthus bibet, aut Germania Tigrim ; 
Quam nostro illius labatur pectore vultus. 

Mel. At nos hinc alii sitientes ibimus Afros ; 65 

Pars Scythiam et rapidum Cretae veniemus Oaxem, 
Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos. 
En, umquam patrios longo post tempore fines, 
Pauperis et tuguri congestum cespite culmen, 
Post aliquot, mea regna, videns mirabor aristas ? 70 

Impius haec tarn culta novalia miles habebit ? 
Barbarus has segetes ? En, quo discordia cives 
Produxit miseros ! en, queis consevimus agros ! 
Insere nunc, Melibcee, piros, pone ordine vites — 
Ite mese, felix quondam pecus, ite capellae. 75 

Non ego vos posthac, viridi projectus in antro, 
Dumosa pendere procul de rupe videbo ; 
Carmina nulla canam ; non, me pascente, capellas, 
Florentem cytisum et salices carpetis amaras. 



Tit. Hie tamen hanc mecum poteras requiescere noctem 
Fronde super viridi : sunt nobis mitia poma, 81 

Castanese molles, et pressi copia lactis ; 
Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant, 
Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae. 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 7 

The wild bee's hum shall oft persuade to sleep, 

And oft the pruner's song shall echo from the steep : 65 

While, from yon lofty elm, your darling dove 

With ceaseless plaints shall woo her turtle's love. 

Tit. Sooner in air shall stags expect their food, 
And fishes change for earth the ocean-flood : 
Sooner, with toil their distant confines past, 70 

Germania's nations shall the Tigris taste, 
Or Parthian hordes the Saone's swift current trace, 
Than his dear form elude my heart's embrace. 

Mel. We, we meanwhile to Afric's thirsty sands, 
Oaxes' stream and Scythia's waste of lands, 75 

Or Britain sunder'd from the world, must go ! 
— And shall I, after many a year of woe, 
E'er my loved country tread ; e'er hail again 
My turf-roof 'd cot, the palace of my reign ? 
These well-wrought fallows shall the soldier own ; 80 
These crops be for a ruffian master sown ? 
What direful ills from civil fury flow I 
See, for whose use our cherish'd harvests grow ! 
Now, Melibceus, graft thy pears : in lines, 
At measured distance, now dispose thy vines ! 85 

— Hence, my poor goats, once happy creatures, hence ! 
No more shall I, in rustic indolence, 
From the green cave your frolic sports survey, 
As on the mountain's briery crags ye play : 
No more with joyous pipe your footsteps lead, 90 

Their boughs where cytisus and willows spread. 

Tit. Yet here with me one night, I ask not much, 
Forget your woes upon this leafy couch : 
Here 'mid ripe apples and soft chesnuts piled, 
And thicken'd curds, your anguish be beguiled ! 95 

Curling from distant roofs the smokes rise slow, 
And the tall hills their lengthening shadows throw. 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 



II. ALEXIS. 



Formosum pastor Corydon ardebat Alexin, 
Delicias domini ; nee, quid speraret, habebal . 
Tantum inter densas, urabrosa cacumina, fagos 
Adsidiie veniebat : ibi haec incondita solus 
Montibus et sylvis studio jactabat inani : 5 

" O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas ? 
Nil nostri miserere ? Mori me denique coges. 
Nunc etiam pecudes umbras et frigora captant ; 
Nunc virides etiam occultant spineta lacertos ; 
Thestylis et rapido fessis messoribus aestu 10 

Allia serpyllumque herbas contundit olentes : 
At mecum raucis, tua dum vestigia lustro, 
Sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis. 
Nonne fuit satius tristes Amaryllidis iras, 
Atque superba pati fastidia ? Nonne Menalcan ; 1 5 

Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses? 
O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori : 
Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra Ieguntur. 
Despectus tibi sum, nee qui sim quaeris, Alexi ; 
Quam dives pecoris, nivei quam lactis abundans. 20 

Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus agnae : 
Lac mihi non testate novum 5 non frigore defit : 
Canto quae solitus, si quando armenta vocabat, 
Amphion Dircaeus in Actaeo Aracyntho. 
Nee sum adeo informis : nuper me in litore vidi, 25 

Quum placidum ventis staret mare ; non ego Daphnin 
Judice te metuam, si numquam fallat imago. 
O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura, 
Atque humiles habitare casas, et figere cervos, 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS, 



II. ALEXIS. 



I 



Alexis, beauteous and his lord's delight, 
Was loved by Corydon, in hope's despite. 
Oft 'mid the solitary beechen glade, 
As with his pipe the pensive shepherd stray'd, 
These simple lays he pour'd to hill and grove : 
" And cannot aught my plaint, Alexis, move ? 
" Unpitying youth ! thy frowns my death will prove. 
" Now herds for cooling shade their meads forsake: 
" Now the green lizard lurks within the brake ; 
" And for the mowers, all faint with sultry airs, 10 

" Wild thyme and garlick Thestylis prepares : 
" Whilst, as I trace thee o'er the sun-struck ground, 
" The copses wild with shrill cicadas sound. 
" Of Amaryllis happier had it been 
" Still to endure the wayward scorn, or spleen ; 15 

" Happier Menalcas' caprice to bear, 
" Though he so dusky dark, and thou so fair ! 
" Trust not too much thathue, which charms the sight i^ 
" The hyacinth we pluck, the privet slight ; [white. > 
" Though that, sweet boy ! be dark, and this all snowy J 20 
" — Still am I scorn'd ; nor dost thou ask, or know, 
" What milk my pails, my folds what flocks o'erflow. 
" A thousand gimmers roam across my hills ; 
" And summer's, winter's milk my dairy fills : 
" Nor breathed Amphion notes more soft than mine, 25 
" When he on Aracynthus call'd his kine. 
" Nor so unsightly I : as late I stood 
" Upon the beach, beside th' unruffled flood, 
" Myself I view'd ; and might I trust the wave, 
" E'en Daphnis self I'd in thy judgement brave. 30 

" Ah ! then with me this now-neglected dell 
" Deign to frequent, in this poor hut to dwell ; 



10 

Haedorumque gregem viridi compellere hibisco ! 30 

Mecum una in sylvis iraitabere Pana canendo. 

Pan primus calamos cera conjungere plures 

Instituit; Pan curat oves oviumque magistros. 

Nee te pceniteat calamo trivisse labellum : 

Haec eadem ut sciret, quid non faciebat Amyntas ? 35 

Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis 

Fistula, Damcetas dono mihi quam dedit olim, 

Et dixit moriens : 6 Te nunc habet ista secundum.' 

Dixit Damcetas ; invidit stultus Amyntas. 

Praeterea duo, nee tuta mihi valle reperti, 40 

Capreoli, sparsis etiam nunc pellibus albo, 

Bina die siccant ovis ubera ; quos tibi servo. 

Jam pridem a me illos abducere Thestylis orat — 

Et faciet ; quoniam sordent tibi munera nostra. 

Hue ades, 6 formose puer : tibi lilia plenis 45 

Ecce ferunt Nymphae calathis ; tibi Candida Nai's, 
Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens, 
Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi ; 
Turn, casia atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis, 
Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia caltha. 50 

Ipse ego cana legam tenera lanugine mala, 
Castaneasque nuces, mea quas Amaryllis amabat. 
Addam cerea pruna ; honos erit huic quoque porno ; 
Et vos, 6 lauri, carpam, et te, proxima myrte : 
Sic positse quoniam suaves miscetis odores. 55 

Rusticus es, Corydon : nee munera curat Alexis ; 
Nee, si muneribus certes, concedat Tolas. 
Heu, heu, quid volui misero mihi ! Floribus Austrum, 
Perditus, et liquidis immisi fontibus apros. 
Quern fugis, ah demens ? Habitarunt di quoque sylvas, 60 
Dardaniusque Paris. Pallas, quas condidit, arces 



virgil's bucolics. li 

" With me to pierce the stag, and to the mead 

" Drive the young kids, my tender flock, to feed. 

M Here we, in song conjoin'd, with Pan will vie : 35 

" Pan, who first taught the art with waxen tie 

" To bind the reeds unequal ; Pan, whose arm 

" Protects the shepherd and the sheep from harm. 

" Nor with the reed to wear thy lip disdain : 

" This skill how long'd Amyntas to attain ! 40 

" Mine is a pipe of sevenfold tube combined, 

" Which old Damoetas to my hand consign*d : 

** * It's second master thou,' he dying said — 

" He said ; and weak Amyntas droop'd the head. 

" And mine two kids, their hides still dappled round 45 

" (As late I roved, in no safe valley found) 

" Which daily of two ewes the udders drain ; 

" These I for thee preserve — alas ! in vain : 

" These oft has Thestylis implored of me ; 

— " And let her take them, since despised by thee ! 50 

" O come ! The Nymphs for thee in baskets bring 
iC Their lilied stores : for thee the blooming spring 
" The white-arm'd Naiad rifles ; violets pale, 
*' The poppy's flush, and dill which scents the gale, 
" Cassia, and hyacinth, and daffodil 55 

" With yellow marigold the chaplet fill. 
" The downy apricot be mine to bear, 
" And chesnuts once to Amaryllis dear : 
■ Nor shall the bloomy plum unhonour'd pine ; ""j 
" And ye, proud bays, shall with the myrtle twine : >60 
" For, blended so, ye breathe an odour all divine. J 

" Ah ! clownish Corydon, thy gifts he'll none : 
" Nor would Iblas be in gifts outdone — 
" Wretch that I am \ that name — not south winds more 
u Can vex my flowers, my streams the wallowing boar! 65 
" Whom shunn'st thou, inconsiderate boy ? The Gods, 
" And Dardan Paris, whilom dwelt in woods. 



12 

Ipsa colat : nobis placeant ante omnia sylvae. 

Torva leeena lupum sequitur ; lupus ipse capellam ; 

Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella ; 

Te Corydon, 6 Alexi : trahit sua quemque voluptas. 65 

Adspice, aratra jugo referunt suspensa juvenci, 

Et sol crescentes decedens duplicat umbras : 

Me tamen urit amor ; quis enim modus adsit amori ? 

Ah Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia cepit ! 
Semiputata tibi frondosa vitis in ulmo est. 70 

Quin tu aliquid saltern potius, quorum indiget usus, 
Viminibus mollique paras detexere junco/ 
Invenies alium, si te hie fastidit, Alexin." 



III. PALjEMON. 



Men. Die mihi, Damoeta, cujum pecus ? an Meliboei ? 

Dam. Non; verumiEgonis: nupermihitradiditiEgon. 

Men. Infelix 6 semper, oves, pecus ! Ipse Neaeram 
Dum fovet, ac ne me sibi praeferat ilia veretur, 
Hie alienus oves custos bis mulget in hora ; 5 

Et succus pecori et lac subducitur agnis. 

Dam. Parciiis ista viris tamen objicienda memento : 
Novimus et qui te, transversa tuentibus hircis, 
Et quo, sed faciles Nymphse risere, sacello. 

Men. Turn, credo, quum me arbustum videre Miconis, 
Atque mala vites incidere falce novellas. 1 1 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. IS 

€ * Let Pallas love- the towers, 'twas hers to rear : 

" To us the woodlands be for ever dear ! 

" The lioness pursues the wolf, her prey ; 70 

" The wolf the kid, the kid the trefoil's spray, 

" And Corydon Alexis : bound by laws 

" Peculiar, each his special pleasure draws. 

" And see, their yokes upon their shoulders hung, 
" Homeward the weary bullocks plod along : 75 

" The sun, cool setting, whelms in shade the grove; 
" Yet still I burn — for what can temper love ? 

" Ah ! Corydon, what madness fires thy brain ! 
" Thy vines, half-pruned, on leafy elms remain. 
" Rather of osiers thou, with happier care, 80 

" Or plaited rushes useful frails prepare; 
" Nor fear, should still Alexis frown, to find 
4i Some love, though not so fair, yet far more kind." 



III. PAL^EMON, 



Menalcas. Are these, Damoetas, Melibceus' sheep? 

Darncetas. No, iEgon's ; JEgon gave them me to keep, 

Men. Ah ! ever luckless flock ! While he pursues 
Neaera's love, and trembles still to lose 
— Her favour'd suitor I — this varlet swain 
Dares twice an hour their milky juices drain, [plain. 
While the wrong'd lambs with hungry bleats coni- 

Dam. These taunts on men be cautious how you throw ! 
We know, who saw you — in what chapel too — 
With glance oblique while goats congenial peer'd ; 10 
But the indulgent Nymphs look'd on, and leer'd. 

Men. Aye, 'twas, I trow, upon that self-same day,^J 
When arm'd with savage Jmife for fierce affray, S 

I hack'd poor Micon's shrubs and vines away ! J 



• V 

Lin. > 
ni-J 



14 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 

Dam. Aut hie ad veteres fagos, quum Daphmdis arcum 
Fregisti et calamos : quae tu, perverse Menalca, 
Et quum vidisti puero donata dolebas ; 
Et, si non aliqua nocuisses, mortuus esses. 15 



Men. Quid domini faciant, audent quum talia fures ! 
Non ego te vidi Damonis, pessime, caprum 
Excipere insidiis, multum latrante Lycisca ? 
Et quum clamarem : " Quo nunc se proripit ille ? 
" Tityre, coge pecus ;" tu post carecta latebas. 20 

Dam. An mihi cantando victus non redderet ille, 
Quern mea carminibus meruisset fistula, caprum? 
Si nescis, meus ille caper fuit : et mihi Damon 
Ipse fatebatur ; sed reddere posse negabat. 

Men. Cantando tu ilium ? Aut umquam tibi fistula cera 
Juncta fuit ? Non tu in triviis, indocte, solebas 26 

Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen ? 

Dam. Vis ergo inter nos, quid possit uterque, vicissim 
Experiamur ? Ego hanc vitulam (ne forte recuses, 
Bis venit ad mulctram, binos alit ubere foetus) 30 

Depono : tu die, mecum quo pignore certes. 

Men. De grege non ausim quidquam deponere tecum : 
Est mihi namque domi pater, est injusta noverca ; 
Bisque die numerant ambo pecus, alter et hsedos. 
Verum, id quod multo tute ipse fatebere majus, 35 

(Insanire libet quoniam tibi) pocula ponam 
Fagina, cselatum divini opus Alcimedontis : 
Lenta quibus torno facili superaddita vitis 
Diffusos edera vestit pallente corymbos. 
In medio duo signa ; Conon, et — quis fuit alter, 40 

Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem ; 
Tempora quae messor, quae curvus arator haberet ? 
Necdum illis labra admovi, sed condita servo. 



virgil's bucolics. 15 

Dam. Or when by these old beeches, envy-rapt, 15 
The bow of Daphnis and his shafts you snapt ! 
These, when presented to the blooming boy, 
You mark'd, Menalcas, with malignant eye ; 
And. had you not found means to vent your spite, 
In very passion you had burst outright. 20 

Men. Slaves thus audacious, what will masters dare ? 
Did I not see you, rascal as you are, 
While loud Lycisca bark'd, steal Damon's goat ? 
And when I cried, " You hurrying skulker note ; 
" Tityrus, collect your stragglers :" in the hedge 25 

You sneak'd, conceal'd behind the rustling sedge. 

Dam. And should not he, in minstrelsy outdone, 
Resign the goat my sweeter pipe had won ? 
Haply, you know not that the goat was mine : 
This Damon own'd ; yet could he not resign. SO 

Men. Your 'sweeter pipe !' Thepipe you call so e sweet/ 
Was it with wax e'er fasten'd ? In the street 
Did you not, blockhead, to the rabble train 
Through grating straws squeak out your wretched strain? 
Dam. And dare you, then, a match in singing make? 35 
This heifer on my fi wretched strain ' I stake : 
Two calves she nurses, twice is milk'd each day — 
What will you bet of equal value ? Say. 

Men. No wager dare I offer from my fold ; 
For, twice a day, both sheep and kids are told 40 

By my strict sire and stepmother severe : 
But what yourself must own a stake more dear, 
Since on this madman's match your heart is set, 
Two beechen cups (Alcimedon's) I'll bet; 
Carved round whose rims flows gracefully a vine, 45 
With leaves that mixt 'mid clustering ivy twine. 
Conon their sides adorns, and — who was he, 
That with his circling line traced earth and sea, 
And for the scythe and plough assign'd their days ? 
Pure have I kept them from the lip, and gaze. 50 



16 VlfcGlL S BUCOLICS. 

Dam. Et nobis idem Alcimedon duo pocula fecit, 
Et molli circum est ansas amplexus acantho ; 45 

Orpheaque in medio posuit, sylvasque sequentes. 
Necdum illis labra admovi, sed condita servo. 
Si ad vitulam spectas, nihil est quod pocula laudes. 

Men. Numquam hodie effugies ; veniam, quocumque 
vocaris. 
Audiat haec tantum, vel qui venit, ecce, Palaemon. 50 
Efficiam posthac, ne quemquam voce lacessas. 

Dam. Quin age, si quid habes, in me mora non erit 
ulla; 
Nee quemquam fugio : tantum, vicine Palaemon, 
Sensibus haec imis, res est non parva, reponas. 

Palcemon. Dicite : quandoquidem in molli consedimus 
herba ; 55 

Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos ; 
Nunc frondent sylvae ; nunc formosissimus annus. 
Incipe, Damceta ; tu deinde sequere, Menalca. 
Alternis dicetis ; amant alterna Camcenae* 



Dam. Ab Jove principium, Musae : Jovis omnia plena. 
Ille colit terras ; illi mea carmina curae. 61 

Men, Et me Phcebus amat; Phcebo sua semper apud me 
Munera sunt, lauri et suave rubens hyacinthus. 

Dam. Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella ,* 
Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri. 65 

Men. At mihi sese ofiert ultro, meus ignis, Amyntas ; 
Notior ut jam sit canibus non Delia nostris. 

Dam. Parta meae Veneri sunt munera ; namque notavi 
Ipse locum, aeriae quo congessere palumbes. 

Men. Quod potui, puero sylvestri ex arbore lecta 70 
Aurea mala decern misi ; eras altera mittam. 

Dam. O quoties et quas nobis Galatea locuta est ! 
Partem aliquam, venti, divum referatis ad aures. 



VIRGIl/s BUCOLICS. 17 

• Dam. Two cups for me, too, scoop'dthat handrenown'd, 
And with acanthus wreathed their handles round : 
Orpheus upon the side his skill portray'd, 
And ductile forests following as he play'd. 
Pure have I kept them from the lip, and gaze ; 55 

But, with the heifer match'd, they claim no praise. 

Men. Not so your challenge shall you fly to-day; 
I close with it : who passes, judge our lay ! 
— And lo, Palaemon ! — I will teach your tongue, 
Henceforth less license, friend, to dare in song. 60 

Dam. Come on then, if of music aught be thine : 
I nor the challenge, nor the judge, decline. 
Your best attention, good Palaemon, pay 
(The stake's no trifle) to our rival lay. 

Palcemon. Begin : since here the turf supplies our seat, 
And the soft mead strews flowers beneath our feet ; 66 
And forest-glades their greenest livery wear, 
And nature's freshest beauties deck the year. 
You first, Damcetas ; then, Menalcas, prove 
Your skill : alternate strains the Muses love. 70 



Dam. c From Jove my song begins: through all he reigns; 

* Sways the wide earth, nor even my verse disdains.' 

Men. c To Phoebus I am dear ; and all he loves, 
6 The bay and hyacinth, adorn my groves.' 

Dam. e Me Galatea pelts with apples green ; 75 

* Then flies, but hopes she does not fly unseen.' 

Men. c To me my flame has ever joyous flown ; 

* Not to my dogs my Dian better known.' 

Dam. c Gifts, to my Venus welcome, I have got ; 
' The stock-dove's nest — I mark'd the secret spot.' 80 

Men. ' To mine ten quinces I — 'twas all my store— 
8 Have sent : and will to morrow send ten more.' 

Dam. i How oft has Galatea charm'd my ear ! 
6 Winds, waft her words to heaven, that Gods may hear.' 

c 



IB virgil's bucolics. 

Men. Quid prodest, quod me ipse animo non spernis, 
Amynta ; 
Si, dum tu sectaris apros, ego retia servo ? 75 

Dam. Phyllida mitte mihi ; meus est natalis, Iola ; 
Cum faciam vitula pro frugibus, ipse venito. 

Men. Phyllida amo ante alias ; nam me discedere flevit, 
Et, " Longum, formose, vale, vale," inquit, Iola. 

Dam. Triste lupus stabulis, maturis frugibus imbres, 80 
Arboribus venti, nobis Amaryllidis irae. 

Men. Dulce satis humor, depulsis arbutus hasdis, 
Lenta salix fceto pecori, mihi solus Amyntas. 

Dam. Pollioamatnostram, quamvis est rustica, Musam : 
Pierides, vitulam lectori pascite vestro. 85 

Men. Pollio et ipse facit nova carmina : pascite taurum, 
Jam cornu petat, et pedibus qui spargat arenam. 

Dam. Qui te, Pollio, amat, veniat, quo te quoquegaudet: 
Mella fluant illi, ferat et rubus asper amomum. 

Men. Qui Bavium non odit, amet tua carmina, Maevi ; 
Atque idem jungat vulpes et mulgeat hircos. 91 

Dam. Qui legitis flores et humi nascentia fraga, 
Frigidus — 6 pueri, fugite hinc — latet anguis in herba. 

Men. Parcite, oves, nimium procedere : non bene ripae 
Creditur: ipse aries etiam nunc veil era siccat. 95 

Dam. Tityre, pascentes a flumine reice capellas : 
Ipse, ubi tempus erit, omnes in fonte lavabo. 

Men. Cogite oves, pueri ; si lac praeceperit aestus, 95 
Ut nuper, frustra pressabimus ubera palmis. 

Dam. Heu, heu, quam pingui macer est mihi taurus in 
ervo ! 
Idem amor exitium pecori pecorisque magistro. 

Men. His certe neque amor causa est: vix ossibus 
haerent. 
Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos. 

Dam. Die, quibus in terris, et eris mihi magnus Apollo, 
Tres pateat cceli spatium non amplius ulnas. 105 



virgil's bucolics, 19 

Men. c Nought it avails me, that Amyntas smiles ; 85 

* If, while he hunts, I still must watch the toils.' 

Dam. 6 Iolas, 'tis my birth-day ; Phyllis send : 
4 When bleeds my harvest-calf, yourself attend/ 

Men. 4 Phyllis I love : for grieved when I withdrew, 
4 " Adieu," she wept and cried, " a long adieu !"' 90 
Darn. ' Wolves hurt the flocks, and showers the 
ripen'd corn, 
4 And storms the woods ; and me my fair one's scorn.' 
Men. 4 Young grain likes moisture ; kids the budding 
grove ; 

* Lithe osiers teeming cows ; I but Amyntas love.' 

Dam. i Rude though it be, kind Pollio bears my reed : 

* A heifer, Muses, for your votary feed.' 96 

Men. ' Pollio, himself a bard, a bull demands, 
4 Who threatens with his horns and spurns the sands.' 

Dam. * Who loves thee, Pollio, may he be as thou : 
4 For him drop honey, spice on brambles grow !' 100 

Men. 4 Love Maevius he who, Bavius, hates thee not ; 

* And yoke the fox, and milk the rank he-goat ! ' 

Dam. 4 Hence, boys, who gather berries in the brake, 
4 And woodland flowers ! There lurks the chilly snake." 

Men. 4 Ewes, tread with caution near that treacherous 
pool: 105 

4 See, where the ram still dripping dries his wool ! ' 

Dam. ■ Tityrus, your goats restrain from that deep wave: 
€ Them will I soon in shallower waters lave.' 

Men. 4 Boys, fold your flocks : if heat the ewes distress, 
' In vain, as late, our hands their teats shall press.' 110 

Dam. i How lean that bull o'er clover-pastures strays ! 
' Love on the herd, as on the master, preys.' [seem, 

Men. * Love has not struck my lambs ; yet worse they 
4 Scath'd by some unknown eye's malignant beam ! ' 

Dam . * Say, in what lands — and be my Phoebus crown'd — 
4 By three short ells yon spacious heavens are bound,' 

c V 



20 virgil's bucolics* 

Men, I)ic, quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum. 
Nascantur flores ; et Phyllida solus habeto. 



Pal. Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites : 
Et vitula tu dignus, et hie, et quisquis amores 
Aut metuet dulces, aut experietur amaros. 1 10 

Claudite jam rivos, pueri : sat prata biberunt. 



IV. POLLIO. 



Sicelides Musae, paullo majora canamus ; 
Non omnes arbusta juvant humilesque myricae. 
Si canimus sylvas, sylvae sint Consule dignae. 
Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas : 
1 Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo ; 5 

Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna : 
Jam nova progenies ccelo demittitur alto. 
Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum 
Desinet, ac toto surget gens aurea mundo, 
Casta fave Lucina : tuus jam regnat Apollo. 10 

Teque adeo decus hoc aevi, te Consule, inibit, 
Pollio ; et incipient magni procedere menses. 
Te duce, si qua manent, sceleris vestigia nostri 
Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras. 
Die deum vitam accipiet, divisque videbit 1 5 

Permixtos heroas, et ipse videbitur illis, 
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem. 



VIRGIL'S BUCOLICS. 21 

Men. ' Say, in what lands those wondrous flowers are 

grown, [own.* 

Which bear the names of kings — and Phyllis be thine 



Pal. Not mine your tuneful struggle to decide : 
Ye both deserve the prize, for which ye've vied ; 120 

[And whoso or shall dread love's sweet control, 
Or feel his shaft deep rankling in the soul]. 
— Close, boys, the streams : enough has flow'd to feed 
The swelling green, and saturate the mead. 12* 



IV. POLLIO. 



Muses of Sicily, a loftier strain 
Be ours : the lowly offspring of the plain, 
Shrubs and the humble tamarisk, please not all ; 
Worthy of consuls be our woodland pastoral ! 

Comes the last age, by Cumae's maid foretold : 5 

( Afresh the mighty line of years unrolPd, 

* The Virgin now, now Saturn's sway returns ; 

* Now the blest globe a heaven-sprung Child adorns ; 
' Whose genial power shall whelm earth's iron race, 

6 And plant once more the golden in it's place — 10 

' Thou, chaste Lucina, but that child sustain : 
6 And, lo ! disclosed thine own Apollo's reign ! 
' This glory, Pollio, in thy year begun, 

* Thence the great months their radiant course shall run ; 
' And, of our crimes should still some trace appear, 15 
c Shall rid the trembling earth of all her fear. 

* His shall it be a life divine to hold, 

' With heroes mingled and 'mid gods enroll'd ; 

6 And, form'd by patrimonial worth for sway, 

' Him shall the tranquil universe obey. 20 



22 virchi/s BUCOLICS. 

At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu, 

Errantes ederas passim cum baccare tellus, 

Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fiindet acantho. 20 

Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae 

Ubera ; nee magnos metuent armenta leones. 

Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cmiabula flores : 

Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni 

Occidet; Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum. 25 

At, simul heroiim laudes et facta parentis 

Jam legere, et quae sit poteris cognoscere virtus : 

Molli paullatim flavescet campus arista, 

Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva ; 

Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella. 30 

Pauca tamen suberunt priscae vestigia fraudis, 

Quae tentare Thetim ratibus, quae cingere muris 

Oppida, quae jubeant telluri infindere sulcos. 

Alter erit turn Tiphys, et altera quae vehat Argo 

Delectos heroas : erunt etiam altera bella ; 35 

Atque iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles. 

Hinc, ubi jam firmata virum te fecerit aetas, 

Cedet et ipse mari vector ; nee nautica pinus 

Mutabit merces : omnis feret omnia tellus. 

Non rastros patietur humus, non vinea falcem ; 40 

Robustus quoque jam tauris juga solvet arator. 

Nee varios discet mentiri lana colores : 

Ipse sed in pratis aries jam suave rubenti 

Murice, jam croceo mutabit vellera luto ; 

Sponte sua sandyx pascentes vestiet agnos. 45 

" Talia saecla," suis dixerunt, " currite," fusis 

Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae. 



} 



} 



virgil's bucolics. 2S 

* Gladly to thee it's earliest gifts the field, 
Till'd by no human hand, bright Boy, shall yield ; 
The baccar's stem with curling ivy twine, 
And colocasia and acanthus join. 
Home their full udders goats, unurged, shall bear ; 25 
Nor shall the herd the lordly Lion fear : 
Flowers of all hues shall round thy cradle vie, 
The snake and poison's treacherous weed shall die, 
And far Assyria's spice shall every hedge supply. 

' But soon as thou thy father's acts can'st read 30 

And heroes' toils, and rate each deathless deed; 
"With soften'd harvests every plain shall glow, 
On the wild brier the grape's rich cluster grow, 
And gnarled oaks with dripping honey flow. 
— i Yet of old guilt shall still survive some stain : 35 
Still the bold ship shall tempt the boisterous main ; 
Cities with walls shall still repel the foe, 
And earth's torn breast be furrow'd with the plough. 
Some Tiphys other chiefs again shall guide, 
And other Argoes bear them o'er the tide : 40 

Fresh wars shall rise ; and, eager to destroy, 
A new Achilles shall be sent to Troy. 

c When now to vigorous manhood thou art come, 
O'er seas no more the labouring keel shall roam ; 
No more to distant realms shall Traffic hie : 45 

Each land each produce shall, itself, supply. 
O'er the vex'd tillage shall no harrow sound, 
No pruner's hook the vine luxuriant wound : 
The sturdy ploughman shall unyoke his steer, 
The wool no counterfeited stain shall bear ; 50 

But tinctured from the mead he crops, the ram 
Shall flush with purple, or in saffron flame, 
While native crimson tints the frolic lamb. 
" Flow, happy ages," to their distaffs cried 
Th' harmonious Fates ; " and pour your golden tide." 



) 



24 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 

Adgredere 6 magnos, aderit jam tempus^ honores, 
Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum ! 
Adspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum, 50 

Terrasque, tractusque maris, ccelumque profundum ; 
Adspice, venturo laetantur ut omnia saeclo. 
O mihi tarn longae maneat pars ultima vita?, 
Spiritus et, quantum sat erit tua dicere facta ! 
Non me carminibus vincet nee Thracius Orpheus, 55 
Nee Linus, huic mater quamvis : atque huic pater adsit ; 
Orphei Calliopea, Lino formosus Apollo. 
Pan etiam Arcadia mecum si judice certet, 
Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se judice victum. 

Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem : 60 

Matri longa decern tulerunt fastidia menses. 
Incipe, parve puer : cui non risere parentes, 
Nee deus hunc mensa, dea nee dignata cubili est. 



V. DAPHNIS, 



Men. Cur non, Mopse, boni quoniam convenimus ambo, 
Tu calamos inflare leves, ego dicere versus, 
Hie corulis mixtas inter considimus ulmos ? 



Mops. Tu major; tibi me est sequum parere, Menalca : 
Sive sub incertas Zephyris mutantibus umbras, 5 

Sive antro potius succedimus. Adspice, ut antrum 
Sylvestris raris sparsit labrusca racemis. 

Men. Montibus in nostris solus tibi certet Amyntas. 

Mops. Quid, si idem certet Phcebum superare canendo? 



virgil's bucolics. 25 

' Those honours Thou — 'tis now the time — approve, 56 

* Child of the skies, great progeny of Jove ! 
6 Beneath the solid orb's vast convex bent, 

4 See on the coming year the world intent : 

' See earth and sea and highest heaven rejoice ; 60 

1 All but articulate their grateful voice. 

6 O reach so far my long life's closing strain, 
' My breath so long to hymn thy deeds remain ! 
( Orpheus, nor Linus, should my verse excel ; 
6 Though even Calliope her Orpheus' shell 65 

* Should string, and (anxious for the son the sire) 
4 His Linus' numbers Phoebus should inspire ! 

* Should Pan himself before his Arcady 

6 Contend, he'd own his song surpass'd by me. 

6 Know then, dear Boy, thy mother by her smile : 70 

* Enough ten months have given of pain and toil. 

' Dear Boy, begin — who ne'er such smile has known, 

* Nor board nor bed divine 'tis his to own.' 



V. DAPHNIS, 



Menalcas. And, why not, Mopsus, since we're met to 
day— 
You skill'd to pipe, and I to trill the lay — 
Here seat us, where the elm and hazel blend 
Their quivering boughs ? 

Mopsus. The elder you, my friend, 
Just what you please prescribe, and I obey : 5 

Whether, where Zephyrs 'mid the branches play, 
We court the checquer'd shade; or choose yon cave, 
Where gadding free the wild-vine's tendrils wave. 

Men. None but Amyntas on our hills may try ^J 
To match your art in sylvan minstrelsy : — >10 

Mops. And he would strive e'en Phoebus to outvie. J 



26 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 

Men. Incipe, Mopse, prior; si quos aut Phyllidis ignes, 
Aut Alconis habes laudes, aut jurgia Codri: 11 

Incipe ; pascentes servabit Tityrus haedos. 

Mops. Imm6 haec, in viridi nuper quae cortice fagi 
Carmina descripsi, et modulans alterna notavi, 
Experiar; tu deinde jubeto certet Amyntas. 15 

Men. Lenta salix quantum pallenti cedit olivae, 
Puniceis humilis quantum saliunca rosetis : 
Judicio nostro tantum tibi cedit Amyntas — 

Mops. Sed tu desine plura, puer ; successimus antro. 



' Exstinctum Nymphae crudeli funere Daphnin 20 
Flebant : vos coruli testes et flumina Nymphis : 
Quum, complexa sui corpus miserabile gnati, 
Atque deos atque astra vocat crudelia mater. 
Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus 

Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina ; nulla neque amnent 
Libavit quadrupes, nee graminis adtigit herbam. 26 

Daphni, tuum Pcenos etiam ingemuisse leones 
Interitum, montesque feri sylvaeque loquuntur. 
Daphnis et Armenias curru subjungere tigres 
Instituit, Daphnis thiasos inducere Bacchi, 30 

Et foliis lentas intexere mollibus hastas. 

* Vitis ut arboribus decori est, ut vitibus uvae, 
Ut gregibus tauri, segetes ut pinguibus arvis ; 
Tu decus omne tuis : postquam te fata tulerunt, 
Ipsa Pales agros atque ipse reliquit Apollo. 35 

Grandia saepe quibus mandavimus hordea sulcis, 
Infelix lolium et steriles nascuntur avenae. 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 27 

Men. Begin then, Mopsus ; if or love's fierce flame 
By beauteous Phyllis felt, or Alcon's fame, 
Or Codrus' tuneful strife inspire your reed — 
Begin : your kids young Tityrus here will feed. 15 

Mops. Rather those numbers let me now rehearse, 
Which on the beech's rind in measured verse 
I carved, and sung alternate as I lay : 
Then bid Amyntas bear the palm away ! 

Men. Far as the willow olives pale o'erpass, 20 

Or glowing rose-beds dim the spiked grass, 
So far dost thou Amyntas, in my thought — [sought. 

Mops. Hush, shepherd : see, we've gain'd the grot we 



* The Nymphs their Daphnis wail'd, by fate austere 

* To death consign'd : ye hazels, witness bear, 25 
6 And you, ye streamlets ; when, with fond embrace 

* Clasping the darling corse, in wild amaze 

8 The frantic mother pour'd her piteous moan, 

6 And charged on Gods and stars her ravish'd son. 

6 That day, no shepherd drove his flock to drink 30 

* The cooling wave ; upon the river's brink 

4 No steed or sipp'd the flood, or cropp'd the green : 
' Even Lybian lions, melting at the scene 

* (As the wild hills, and savage woodlands tell) 

* Wept o'er thy doom, and howl'd their sad farewell. 35 
6 First Daphnis o'er th' Armenian tiger's mane 

* Strapp'd the strong harness ; first the Bacchant train 

* To lead their orgies to the God injoin'd, 

1 And the slight thyrsus with soft foliage twined. 

8 As vines of trees, and grapes of vines the pride, 40 

* And bulls of herds, and corn of champaign wide, 

* So thou of thine : now nought of thee remains — 
' Pales and Phoebus both have fled the plains. 

* Where to the furrow bulky grain we gave, 

* Tares and the barren wild-oat idly wave ; 4S 



28 

Pro molli viola, pro purpureo narcisso, 

Carduus et spinis surgit paliurus acutis. 

Spargite humum foliis ; inducite fontibus umbras, 40 

Pastores : mandat fieri sibi talia Daphnis ; 

Et tumulum facite, et tumulo superadd ite carmen : 

" Daphnis ego in sylvis, hinc usque ad sidera notus, 

" Formosi pecoris custos, formosior ipse." ' 



Men. Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta, 45 

Quale sopor fessis in gramine ; quale per aestum 
Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo. 
Nee calamis solum sequiparas, sed voce, magistrum : 
Fortunate puer, tu nunc eris alter ab illo. 
Nos tamen haec quocumque modo tibi nostra vicissim 50 
Dicemus, Daphninque tuum tollemus ad astra ; 
Daphnin ad astra feremus : amavit nos quoque Daphnis. 



Mops. An quidquam nobis tali sit munere majus ? 
Et puer ipse fuit cantari dignus ; et ista 
Jam pridem Stimicon laudavit carmina nobis. 55 



Men. * Candidus insuetum miratur limen Olympi, 
Sub pedibusque videt nubes et sidera Daphnis. 
Ergo alacris sylvas et camera rura voluptas 
Panaque, pastoresque tenet, Dryadasque puellas. 
Nee lupus insidias pecori, nee retia cervis 60 

Ulla dolum meditantur : amat bonus otia Daphnis. 
Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant 
Intonsi montes ; ipsae jam carmina rapes. 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 29 

* And, for the daffodil and violet's bloom, 
'Thistles and briers in rank luxuriance gloom. 

' Scatter the ground with leaves ; around each spring 

' Let rising groves their sacred freshness fling 

— fi So Daphnis gives command — and rear his tomb ; 50 

* And grave this verse, memorial of his doom : 

c a p r id e f the woods, I Daphnis here am laid : 
' " Fair was my flock ; but fairer I, who fed." ' 



Men, Sweet to the ear, blest bard, thy tuneful reed, 
As sleep to wearied shepherds on the mead : 55 

As to the traveller, parch 'd with noontide heat, 
The crystal rill soft purling at his feet. 
Nor with your reed alone your master's fame ^ 

You emulate ; like praise your voice may claim : \ 
Blest boy ! henceforth ordain'd to second such a name. J 60 
Yet shall my simple strain, in turn, arise — 
That strain alas ! how mean ! — and to the skies 
Exalt your Daphnis, to the skies above : 
For me, too, Daphnis honour'd with his love. 

Mops. What boon more grateful can my song repay ? 
Worthy was Daphnis of thy happiest lay ; 66 

And oft, that lay how ravishingly sweet, 
Has Stimicon delighted to repeat. 



Men. « Surprised, bright Daphnis hails the heavenly 
world, 
« And views the clouds and stars beneath him whirl'd. 70 

* Hence Rapture, bounding 'mid the groves and plains, 
6 O'er Pan, the shepherds, and the Dryads reigns ! 

1 No more the wolf prowls nightly round the fold ; 

* The careless stag no wily meshes hold. 

« Peace, peace mild Daphnis loves : with joyous cry 75 
6 The wood-clad mountains strike the echoing sky ; 



30 

Ipsa sonant arbusta : " Deus, deus ille," Menalca ! 

6 Sis bonus 6 felixque tuis ! en quatuor aras ; 63 

Ecce duas tibi, Daphni, duas altaria Phoebo : 
Pocula bina novo spumantia lacte quotannis, 
Craterasque duo statuam tibi pinguis olivi ; 
Et 3 multo in primis hilarans convivia Baccho 
(Ante focum, si frigus erit, si messis, in umbra) 70 

Vina novum fundam calathis Ariusia nectar. 
Cantabunt mihi Damoetas et Lyctius iEgon ; 
Saltantes Satyros imitabitur Alphesiboeus. 
Haec tibi semper erunt, et quum sollennia vota 
Reddemus Nymphis, et quum lustrabimus agros. 75 
Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit, 
Dumque thymo pascentur apes, dum rore cicadae ; 
Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt; 
Ut Baccho Cererique, tibi sic vota quotannis 
Agricolae facient : damnabis tu quoque votis.' 80 



Mops. Quae tibi, quae tali reddam pro carmine dona ? 
Nam neque me tantum venientis sibilus Austri, 
Nee percussa juvant fluctu tarn litora, nee quae 
Saxosas inter decurrunt flumina valles. 

Men. Hac te nos fragili donabimus ante cicuta. 83 
Haec nos, ' Formosum Corydon ardebat Alexin ; ' 
Haec eadem docuit, * Cujum pecus? an Melibcei?' 

Mops. At tu sume pedum, quod, me quum saepe rogaret, 
Non tulit Antigenes (et erat turn dignus amari) 
Formosum paribus nodis atque aere, Menalca. 90 



virgil's bucolics. 3i 

* And rocks and towers the triumph speed abroad — 

* " A God," Menalcas, " Daphnis is a God." 

' O shine serene ! Four altars, lo ! we raise ; 

* And two to Phoebus, two to thee shall blaze. 80 

* Yearly two bowls of milk shall bathe thy shrine, 

* And two rich goblets crown'd with oil be thine : 
f And cheerful shall thy feast with wine be made, 
' By winter's fire or in the summer's shade ; 

' For my full flask it's Ariusian store, 85 

8 New nectar worthy of the day, shall pour. 
' The hymn shall iEgon and Damoetas sound, 
4 While light Alphesiboeus frisks around. 

* Such, when our offerings to the Nymphs we bear, "} 

* Or with wreathed victims to the fields repair, >90 

* Such honours shall thy shrine, blest Daphnis, wear. J 
4 While boars the hills, the streams while fishes love, 
6 And Hybla's thyme to bees shall grateful prove, 

' Or dew to the Cicada's thirsty taste ; 

* So long thy rites, thy name, thy praise shall last. 95 

* Yearly to thee his vows the hind shall pay : 

* Not more his prayer shall Bacchus, Ceres sway ; 

* Thou arbiter of vows, as well as they.' 



I 



Mops. A strain so soft what recompence shall greet ? 
For to my ear the whispering breeze less sweet, 100 

And waves low rippling as they kiss the shore, 
And brooks their pebbled channels gurgling o'er. 

Men. First thou from me this reed, a gift, approve : 
With this I sung " Young Corydon's" sad love ; 
This breathed of " iEgon's sheep" the playful strain. 105 

Mops. And thou, what oft Antigenes in vain 
Solicited, but I refused to give 
(Fair though he was) this jointed crook receive : 
With polish'd brass it's knobs all equal shine ; 
*Ti§ elegantly wrought, and it is thine. 110 



32 » 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 



VI. SILENUS. 



Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu 
Nostra, nee erubuit sylvas habitare, Thalia. 
Quum canerem reges et prcelia, Cynthius aurem 
Vellit, et admonuit : " Pastorem, Tityre, pingues 
Pascere oportet oves, deductum dicere carmen." 5 

Nunc ego (namque super tibi erunt, qui dicere laudes, 
Vare, tuas cupiant, et tristia condere bella) 
Agrestem tenui meditabor arundine Musam. 
Non injussa cano. Si quis tamen haec quoque, si quis 
Captus amore leget; te nostras, Vare, myricae, 10 

Te nemus omne canet : nee Phoebo gratior ulla est, 
Quam sibi quae Vari praescripsit pagina nomen. 

Pergite, Pierides. Chromis et Mnasylos in antro 
Silenum pueri somno videre jacentem, 
Inflatum hesterno venas, ut semper, Jaccho ; 15 

Serta procul tantum capiti delapsa jacebant ; 
Et gravis adtrita pendebat cantharus ansa. 
Adgressi (nam saepe senex spe carminis ambo 
Luserat) injiciunt ipsis ex vincula sertis. 
Addit se sociam, timidisque supervenit, Mgle ; 20 

iEgle, Nai'adum pulcherrima : jamque videnti 
Sanguineis frontem moris et tempora pingit. 
Iile dolum ridens, " Quo vincula nectitis?" inquit. 
6i Solvite me, pueri : satis est potuisse videri. 
" Carmina, quaa vultis, cognoscite ; carmina vobis, 25 
" Huic aliud mercedis erit :" simul incipit ipse. 
Turn vero in numerum Faunosque ferasque videres 



virgil's bucolics. 33 

VI. SILENUS. 



First breathed my Muse the Syracusan strain, 
Nor blush'd to dwell amidst the woodland train. 
When, rashly bold, I struck the lyre to kings, 
And war's achievements flutter'd o'er my strings, 
With friendly caution Phoebus touch'd my ear ; 5 

" Tityrus, to shepherds still their flocks be dear : 
" Still shrink the rural bard from lofty themes : 
" His modest pipe a lowlier lay beseems." 
Still, then, that lay be mine ! There yet will be, 
Varus, enow to sing of war and thee. 10 

Nor flows my verse unbidden. Should the Muse, 
Ah ! should she win some fond eye to peruse ; 
Thee, Varus, shall our tamarisks give to fame : 
Phoebus most loves the page, that bears thy name. 

Proceed, sweet Maids. Within a cavern wide 15 
Silenus Chromis and Mnasylos spied. 
Heavy with sleep the aged tippler lay, 
And swoln his veins, as wont, with wine of yesterday : 
Slipt from his brow, unburst, his wreath was here ; 
There his huge goblet hung, with well-worn ear. 20 

Oft cheated with the promise of a strain, 
They seize him ; and his chaplet forms his chain. 
iEgle, the fairest of the Naiad throng, 
JEgle the tremblers joins, who press the song; 
And, as the wondering captive opes his, eyes, 26 

With ruddy mulberries his temples dyes. 
" Why bind me, boys ?" at last with smiles he cried : 
" Loose me; suffice a demi-god descried ! 
" The lay ye ask be yours; the lay to you? 
" To her another recompence is due/' SO 

He sings ! In measured step you then might see 
Fauns and fierce beasts frisk to the minstrelsy? 



34 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 

Ludere, turn rigidas motare cacumina quercus. 

Nee tantam Phcebo gaudet Parnasia rupes : 

Nee tantum Rhodope mirantur et Ismarus Orphea. 30 

Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta 

S< rnina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent, 

Et liquid! simul ignis ; ut his exordia primis 

Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis. 

Turn durare solum, et discludere Nerea ponto 35 

Cceperit, et rerum paullatim sumere formas ; 

Jamque novum terras stupeant lucescere solem, 

Aldus atque cadant submotis nubibus imbres : 

Incipiant sylvae quum primum surgere, quumque 

Rara per ignotos errent animalia montes. 40 

Hinc lapides Pyrrhae jactos, Saturnia regna, 

Caucasiasque refert volucres, furtumque Promethei. 

His adjungit, Ply Ian nautae quo fonte relictum 

Clamassent : ut litus, " Hyla, Hyla," omne sonaret. 

Et fortunatam, si nunquam armenta fuissent, 45 

Pasiphaen nivei solatur amore juvenci — 
Ah, virgo infelix, quae te dementia cepit ! 
Prce tides implerunt falsis mugitibus agros : 
At non tarn turpis pecudum tamen ulla secuta est 
Concubitus, quamvis collo timuisset aratrum, 50 

Et saepe in laevi quaesisset cornua fronte. 
Ah, virgo infelix, tu nunc in montibus erras ! 
Me, latus niveum molli fultus hyacinth o, 
Ilice sub nigr, pallentes ruminat herbas ; ' [phae, 

Aut aliquam in magnos equitur grege. " Claudite, Nym- 
Dictaeae Nymphag, nemorum jam claudite saltus : 56 
Si qua forte ferant oculis sese obvia nostris 
Errabunda bovis vestigia ; forsitan ilium, 
Aut herb i captum viridi, aut armenta secutum, 
Perducant aliquae stabula ad Gortynia vaccae." 60 



virgil's bucolics. 35 

And knotted oaks their tops in rapture nod : 

Not with such glee Parnassus hails it's God ; 

Less, when the Muses breathe from Orpheus' shell, 35 

Feel Rhodope and Ismarus the spell ! 

He sung, how from the void immense combined, 
Their seeds earth, ocean, fire, and aether join'd ; 
And how, no more in wild disorder hurl'd. 
Sprang from these elements the nascent world. 40 

It's firmness how the soil, the sea it's bed 
Received, and gradual vegetation spread : 
How the new sun o'er wondering lands arose, 
And buoyant clouds their liquid wealth disclose : 
How rising woods first cast their little shade, 45 

And few the beasts o'er unknown mountains stray'd : 
The stones of Pyrrha, Saturn's golden time, 
Prometheus' penal vulture, and his crime ; 
And Hylas, whom his messmates loud deplore, 
Whilst ' Hylas ! Hylas ! ' rings from all the shore. 50 

Happy had herds ne'er been, Pasiphae next 
He sooths, with love of her white steer perplext : 
Ah, wretched fair ! what madness fires thy brain ? 
Though Prcetus' maids with lowings mock'd the plain, 
None ever coveted such foul embrace ; "i 55 

Oft though they fear'd the plough, and o'er their face > 
Trembling essay'd the sprouting horn to trace. J 
Ah, wretched fair ! thy heart in absence pines : 
He on soft hyacinths his side reclines ; 
Or in some shade reposed the cud he chews, 60 

Or some congenial paramour pursues — [groves : 

" Close, nymphs of Crete ! ye nymphs, now close the 
" Some friendly chance, as near my favourite roves, 
" May give the rambler to my longing view ; 
" Some emerald pasture, bright with morning dew, 
" May lure his taste, or as her willing thrall, 66 

" Some Gnossian heifer lead him to her stall." 

d 2 



36 virgil's bucolics. 

Turn canit Hesperidum miratara mala puellam: 

Turn Phaethontiadas musco circumdat amarae 

Corticis, atque solo proceras erigit alnos. 

Turn canit, errantem Permessi ad flumina Galium 

Aonas in monies ut duxerit una sororum ; 65 

Utque viro Phcebi chorus adsurrexerit omnis ; 

Ut Linus haec illi divino carmine pastor, 

Floribus atque apio crines ornatus amaro, 

Dixerit : M Hos tibi dant calamos, en adcipe, Musa?, 

Ascraeo quos ante seni : quibus ille solebat 70 

Cantando rigidas deducere montibus ornos. 

His tibi Grynei nemoris dicatur origo : 

Ne quis sit lucus, quo se plus jactet Apollo." 

Quid loquar, ut Scyllam Nisi quam fama secuta est, 
Candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris 75 

Dulichias vexasse rates, et gurgite in alto 
Ah ! timidos nautas canibus lacerasse marinis ? 
Aut ut mutatos Terei narraverit artus ; 
Quas illi Philomela dapes, quae dona pararit, 
Quo cursu deserta petiverit, et quibus ante 80 

Intelix sua tecta supervolitaverit alis ? 

Omnia, quae, Phcebo quondam meditante, beatus 
Audiit Eurotas, jussitque ediscere lauros, 
Ille canit : pulsae referunt ad sidera valles ; 
Cogere donee oves stabulis, numerumque referre 85 

Jussit, et invito processit Vesper Olympo. 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 37 

And now his verse laments the miser-maid, 
By lust of the Hesperian fruit betray'd ; 
And now with mossy bark, to alders grown, 70 

He girdles thy sad sisters, Phaeton. 
Next Gallus, wandering by Permessus' stream, 
Supplies the minstrel's desultory theme : 
Him to th' Aonian mount a Muse convey'd, 
And all the sisters rose, and reverent homage paid ; 75 
While Linus, shepherd he of sacred song 
(Flowers, and wild parsley, twined his locks among) 
Cried, " Take this reed, the Muses' gift, before 
" To Hesiod given : with this 'twas his, of yore, 
ff 'Midst Ascra's glades to charm the hours away, 80 
" When woods their hills forsook to list his lay. 
" With this to hymn Gryneum's grove be thine, 
" Nor seem there bower to Phcebus more divine." 

Why should I tell, how Seylla's deed he sung, 
Scylla the false of royal Nisus sprung ; 85 

Scylla, who girt with howling monsters shook 
Ulysses' keels, and as the surges broke 
In fearful thunders on that barbarous shore, 
Their shuddering crews with savage sea-dogs tore ? 
Tereus' changed form ; and, ere that change declared, 90 
What foods, what gifts the vengeful dame prepared ? 
How fleetly to the desert she is flown : 
How wing'd she skims o'er domes, ah ! once her own ? 

All, all he chaunts, which erst the God of verse 
Taught blest Eurotas' laurels to rehearse. 95 

The echoing vales, as swell the notes along, 
Throw to the skies the far-resounding song : 
Till eve's bright star the folding hour led on, 
Bade count their flocks, and claim'd th' ethereal throne. 



38 



VII. MELIBCEUS. 



Forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis, 
Compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum ; 
Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas : 
Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, 
Et cantare pares, et respondere parati. 5 

Hue mihi, dum teneras defendo a frigore myrtos, 
Vir gregis ipse caper deerraverat ; atque ego Daphnin 
Adspicio ; ille ubi me contra videt : " Ocius," inquit, 
" Hue ades, 6 Melibcee, caper tibi salvus et haedi ; 
Et, si quid cessare potes, requiesce sub umbra. 10 

Hue ipsi potum venient per prata juvenci ; 
Hie viridis tenera praetexit arundine ripas 
Mincius, eque sacra resonant examina quercu." 
Quid facerem? neque ego Alcippen necPhyllida habebam, 
Depulsos a lacte domi quae clauderet agnos; 15 

Et certamen erat, Corydon cum Thyrside, magnum : 
Posthabui tamen illorum mea seria ludo. 
Alternis igitur contendere versibus ambo 
Ccepere ; alternos Musae meminisse volebant. 
Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyrsis. 20 



Cor. « Nymphae, noster amor, Libethrides, aut mihi 
carmen, 
Quale meo Codro, concedite ; proxima Phcebi 
Versibus ille facit ; aut, si non possumus omnes, 
Hie arguta sacra pendebit fistula pinu/ 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 39 



VII. MELIBCEUS. 



Daphnis beneath a whispering holm reclined, 
And near him Cory don and Thyrsis join'd 
Their flocks ; his sheep one pastured on the lawn, 
And one his goats with udders yet undrawn : 
Both freshly blooming, both of Arcady, 5 

Skill'd or to lead the lay or to reply. 
Here, as I seek the father of my fold 
(Stray 'd hither, while my shrubs I shield from cold) 
Daphnis I see ; who soon as me he spies, 
" Safe are your goats, your kids," delighted cries : 10 
<6 Here, friend, this morning be the truant play'd ! 
" Haste, Melibceus, join us in the shade. 
" Hither your steers will cross the meads to drink : 
"" With slender reeds here Mincius veils his brink; 
" And, cheering so his toils, the tiny bee 15 

" Hums his low music round Jove's sacred tree." 

What should I do ? for no Alcippe mine, 
No Phillis, who my lambkins might confine 
Wean'd from their bleating dams : and, rivals long, 
The shepherds twain were met to vie in song. 20 

To their sweet play my serious cares I yield ; 
In strains alternate they dispute the field : 
Alternate strains the sacred Muses please ; 
Those Thyrsis sung, and Corydon's were these. 



Cor. < Dear to my heart, ye Muses, or bestow 25 

Such lays, as from the reed of Codrus flow — , 
Codrus, who Phoebus all but mates in verse ; 
Or, if denied such numbers to rehearse 
(Since not to all is given the power divine) 
My pipe shall hang upon yon hallow'd pine/ 30 



40 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 

Thyr. £ Pastores, edera crescentem ornate poetam, 25 
Arcades, invidia rumpantur ut ilia Codro ; 
Aut, si ultra placitum laudarit, baccare frontem 
Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro.' 



Cor. < Saetosi caput hoc apri tibi, Delia, parvus 
Et ramosa Micon vivacis cornua cervi. 30 

Si proprium hoc fuerit ; laevi de marmore tota 
Puniceo stabis suras evincta cothurno.' 



Thyr. c Sinum lactis, et haec te liba, Priape, quotannis 
Exspectare sat est : custos es pauperis horti. 
Nunc te marmoreum pro tempore fecimus ; at tu, 35 
Si fcetura gregem suppleverit, aureus esto.' 



Cor. e Nerine Galatea, thy mo mihi dulcior Hyblse, 
Candidior cycnis, edera formosior alba ; 
Quum primum pasti repetent prsesepia tauri, 
Si qua tui Corydonis habet te cura, venito/ 40 



Thyr. i Imm6 ego Sardois videar tibi amarior herbis, 
Horridior rusco, projecta vilior alga ; 
Si mihi non hsec lux toto jam longior anno est. 
Ite domum pasti, si quis pudor, ite, juvenci.' 



Cor. 6 Muscosi fontes, et somno mollior herba, 45 
Et quae vos rara viridis tegit arbutus umbra, 
Solstitium pecori defendite ; jam venit aestas 
Torrida^ jam laeto turgent in palmite gemmae/ 



41 

Thyr. 4 Shepherds of Arcady, with ivy crown 
4 Your rising bard, though furious Codrus frown, 
4 And eating jealousy consume his heart ; 
4 Or should mock praise betray the envier's art, 
' With spikenard amulet protect my head, 35 

6 That no ill tongue malignant influence shed.' 
- Cor. 4 Dian, this head, the boar's late bristled pride, 
4 These branching antlers by the stag supplied, 
4 Young Micon hangs as offerings on thy shrine ; 
4 But would'st thou grant that flocks like these were mine, 
1 In polish'd marble thou should'st stand enshrined, 41 
6 And purple buskins should thy ancles bind.' 

Thyr. 4 This bowl of milk, these annual cakes, we give ; 
4 Wealthier, Priapus, hope not to receive : 
4 The fruits 'tis thine to guard, alas ! are mean — 45 
4 Now poorly form'd in marble thou art seen ; 
4 But, should a teeming season bless my fold, 

* My grateful voice should bid that form be gold.' 

Cor. 4 O Galatea, thou who scent'st the air 
4 Sweeter than Hybla's thyme, than swans more fair, 50 
4 More graceful than the ivy's flexile twine — 
4 O if one thought of Corydon be thine, 
4 Soon as the herd shall seek it's nightly rest, 
4 O come, and clasp thy shepherd to thy breast ! ' 

Thyr. 4 Bitterer than crow-foot be I deem'd by thee, 55 
6 Which glows on far Sardinia's yellow lea; 

* Rougher than gorse with prickles cover'd o'er, 
4 And viler than the sea-weed cast ashore, 

4 If this long lingering day outlast not years ! 
4 Homeward, for shame ! haste homeward, well-fed steers.' 
Cor. 4 Ye springs, whosemargins are with moss inlaid; 61 
4 Thou grassy couch, than slumber softer made ; 
4 And thou, green arbutus, whose slender bough 
4 Can but a thin and scanty shade bestow : 
4 O screen my flock ! 'Tis summer's sultry day ; 65 

4 See, the glad vines their turgid buds display ! ' 



42 virgil's bucolics. 

Thyr. c Hie focus tsedse pingues, hie plurimus ignis 
Semper, et adsidua postes fuligine nigri. 50 

Hie tantdm Boreae curamus frigora, quantum 
Aut numerum lupus, aut torrentia flumina ripas.' 



Cor. 6 Stant et juniperi et castaneae hirsutae ; 
Strata jacent passim sua qupque sub arbore poma; 
Omnia nunc rident : at, si formosus Alexis 55 

Montibus his abeat, videas et flumina sicca/ 



Thyr. s Aret ager ; vitio moriens sitit aeris herba ; 
Liber pampineas invidit collibus umbras : 
Phyllidis adventu nostras nemus omne virebit ; 
Juppiter et laeto descendet plurimus imbri.' 60 



Cor. c Populus Alcidae gratissima, vitis Iaccho, 
Formosae myrtus Veneri, sua laurea Phcebo ; 
Phyllis amat corulos : illas dum Phyllis amabit, 
Nee myrtus vincet corulos, nee laurea Phcebi.' 



Thyr. ' Fraxinus in sylvis pulcherrima, pinus in hortis, 
Populus in fluviis, abies in montibus altis : 66 

Saepius at si me, Lycida formose, revisas, 
Fraxinus in sylvis cedat tibi, pinus in hortis.' 



Haec memini, et victum frustri contendere Thyrsin. 
Ex illo Corydon, Corydon est tempore nobis. 70 



43 

Thyr. 4 Here, on this hearth with resinous billets piled, 
The pine-branch blazes ; and the rafters, soil'd 
With constant smoke, bespeak the warmth within : 
Nor more we care for winter's snow-clad scene, 70 

Than wolves respect the numbers of the fold, 
; Or streams their banks, in mountain-torrent rolFd.' 

Cor. 4 Now wears the juniper it's leafy pride, 
' And the rough chesnut throws it's branches wide ; 
1 Fall'n from their boughs, the apples here survey : 75 
1 All nature laughs, and every bower is gay ! 
i But, if Alexis from these mountains hie, 
4 All nature sickens, and each stream is dry/ 

Thyr. 4 The fields are parch'd : by sultriness opprest, 
4 The russet meads have lost their summer vest : 80 

4 No shade, so Bacchus wills, the vineyards rear — 

* But should my beauteous Phyllis re-appear, 

4 The vines shall robe themselves in green again, 
4 And welcome showers shall gladden all the plain/ 
Cor. 4 Dear to Alcides are his poplar groves ; 85 

* Bacchus the vine, the myrtle Venus loves ; 

* Apollo glories in his own green bay, 

4 And Phyllis doats upon the hazel gray — 
6 Long as the hazel is to Phyllis dear, 

* Nor bay nor myrtle lovelier shall appear.' 90 

Thyr. 4 Graceful the ash amidst the woodland towers, 
4 Poplars by brooks, and pines in garden-bowers ; 
4 By spiry firs the mountain is possest — 
4 But be thou, Lycidas, my frequent guest, 
4 Less fair the woodland ash would seem to me, 95 

4 The pine in garden-bower less fair than thee/ 



Thus, I remember, vanquish'd Thyrsis strove : 
And Corydon, thenceforward, rules the grove. 



44 



VIII. PHARMACEUTRIA. 



Pastorum Musam Damonis et Alphesibcei, 
Inmemor herbarum quos est mirata juvenca 
Certantes, quorum stupefactae carmine lynces, 
Et mutata suos requierunt flumina cursus ; 
Damonis Musam dicemus et Alphesibcei. 5 

Tu mihi, seu magni superas jam saxa Timavi, 
Sive oram Illyrici legis aequoris ; en erit umquam 
Ille dies, mihi c^m liceat tua dicere facta? 
En erit, ut liceat totum mihi ferre per orbem 
Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothurno ? 10 

A te principium ; tibi desinet : adcipe jussis 
Carmina ccepta tuis, atque hanc sine tempora circum 
Inter victrices ederam tibi serpere lauros. 



Frigida vix coelo noctis decesssrat umbra, 
Quum ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba; 15 

Incumbens tereti Damon sic ccepit olivae : 
" Nascere, prseque diem veniens age, Lucifer, almum : 
Conjugis indigno Nisag deceptus amore 
Dum queror, et divos, quamquam nil testibus illis 
Profeci, extrema moriens tamen adloquor hora. 20 

Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 

Maenalus argutumque nemus, pinosque loquentes, 
Semper habet ; semper pastorum ille audit amores, 
Panaque, qui primus calamos non passus inertes. 

Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 25 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. '15 

VIII. PHARMACEUTRIA. 



The tale of love Alphesibceus sung 
And Damon, when the heifer wondering hung 
( Forgetful of her food) upon the strain, 
And headlong torrents paused, nor sought the main ; 
And lynxes couch'd, to list the lay divine — 5 

That tale to give posterity be mine. 

O Pollio ! whether now thou bend'st thy way, 
Where huge Timavus glitters on the day, 
Or tread'st Illyrian strands : when, when will be 
The happy hour, that I may sing of thee; 10 

To distant lands thy deeds of war rehearse, 
And hymn thee lord of Sophoclean verse ? 
From thee the Muse began, with thee shall end : 
Framed at thy bidding, to her song extend 
Thy favouring smile ; and O forgive the lay, 15 

Which twines this ivy with thy victor-bay. 



Scarce from the sky had night's cold shadow fled, 
When herds delighted crop the dewy mead ; 
Propt on his staff, sad Damon thus begun : 
" Rise, Phosphor, and lead on the lingering sun ; 20 
" While duped by Nisa's love I mourn in vain, 
" And to the Gods of broken faith complain : 
u For not a God, who witness'd, heals the wrong ! "j 
" Yet, yet to them my parting strains belong — > 

" Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. J 25 
" Still blooms on Msenalus the rustling grove, 
" And vocal pines resound the shepherd's love : 
" Still Pan is heard it's echoing bowers among ; "J 
" Pan, who first bade the reed it's notes prolong — \ 

" Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song, j 30 



46 virgil's bucolics. 

Mopso Nisa datur : quid non speremus amantes ? 
Jungentur jam gryphes equis ; sevoque sequenti 
Cum canibus timidi venient ad pocula damse. 
Mopse, novas incide faces ; tibi ducitur uxor : 
Sparge, marite, nuces ; tibi deserit Hesperus CEtam. 30 
Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 

O digno conjuncta viro ! dum despicis omnes, 
Dumque tibi est odio mea fistula, dumque capellse 
Hirsutumque supercilium promissaque barba ; 
Nee curare deum credis mortalia quemquam. 35 

Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 

Ssepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala 
(Dux ego vester eram) vidi cum matre legentem : 
Alter ab undecimo turn me jam ceperat annus ; 
Jam fragiles poteram a terra contingere ramos. 40 

Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error ! 
Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 

Nunc scio, quid sit Amor : duris in cotibus ilium 
Aut Tmaros, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garamantes, 
Nee generis nostri puerum nee sanguinis edunt. 45 

Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 

Saevus Amor docuit gnatorum sanguine matrem 
Commaculare manus : crudelis tu quoque, mater — 
Crudelis mater magis, an puer improbus ille ? 
Improbus ille puer ; crudelis tu quoque, mater. 50 

Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 

Nunc et oves ultro fugiat lupus ; aurea durse 
Mala ferant quercus ; narcisso floreat alnus ; 



virgil's bucolics. 47 

" To Mopsus now is faithless Nisa given : 

" What may not lovers dread from angry heaven ! 

" Henceforth shall blend the griffin with the steed, 

iC And dogs and trembling deer together feed. 

u Prepare thy torches, Mopsus, thou art wed ; 35 

" Scatter thy nuts : for thee his CEta's head 

" Hesper forsakes, and hastes the night along — 

" Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
" Well worthy, Nisa, of thy conquer'd swain* 
" For whom thy other suitors met disdain ; 40 

" For whom thou scorn' st my reed and humble herd, 
" My shaggy eye-brows, and my lengthen'd beard ! 
" Nor deem'st the Gods, resentful, visit wrong — 

" Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
" First did'st thou to these doting eyes appear 45 

" Within our orchard's bound, thy mother near; 
" Thy little hands the dewy apples pile : 
" I was your guide — too happy I the while ! 
" Just enter'd on my teens, with utmost stretch 
" On tip-toe rising I the boughs could reach : 50 

" I saw, I died, by passion borne along — 

" Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
" Now know I Love's dire source : in Thracia bred 
" Where Rhodope in tempests veils it's head, 
" Or rock'd 'mid Garamantian crags to rest, 55 

" He tears, remorseless tears the human breast : 
" Not to our nature does the boy belong — 

" Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
" Love taught the mother, barbarous lore and wild ! 
" To plunge the dagger in her guiltless child : 60 

— " O savage mother, who such lore could'st learn ! 
" O boy too savage, teaching lore so stern ! 
" Savage alike who urged, and did, the wrong — 

" Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
" Fly now, ye hungry wolves, th' unguarded fold, 65 
" And glow each oak with vegetable gold ; 



48 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 

Pinguia corticibus sudent electra rnyricae ; 
Certent et cycnis ululae ; sit Tityrus Orpheus — 55 

Orpheus in silvis, inter delphinas Arion. 
Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 

Omnia vel medium fiant mare : vivite, sylvae. 
Praeceps aerii specula de montis in undas 
Deferar : extremum hoc munus morientis habeto. 60 
Desine, Maenalios jam desine, tibia, versus." 



Haec Damon : vos, quae respondent Alphesibceus, 
Dicite, Pierides ; non omnia possumus omnes. 

" Effer aquam, et molli cinge haec altaria vitta ; 
Verbenasque adole pingues, et mascula tura : 65 

Conjugis ut magicis sanos avertere sacris 
Experiar sensus : nihil hie nisi carmina desunt. 

Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 

Carmina vel ccelo possunt deducere Lunam : 
Carminibus Circe socios mutavit Ulixi : 70 

Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis. 

Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 

Terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore 
Licia circumdo, terque haec altaria circum 
Eingiem duco : numero deus impare gaudet. 75 

Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 



virgil's bucolics. 49 

" All gay with daffodils let alders tower, 

66 And lowliest tamarisks weep their amber shower : 

" Vie owls with cygnets : Tityrus Orpheus be ; 

" Orpheus amid the woods, or in the sea 70 

" Arion, sovereign of the dolphin throng — 

" Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
" Be earth one watery waste : ye woods, farewell ! 
" Headlong, amidst the sweeping surges' swell, 
" From some sky-piercing cliff I'll spring to death : 75 
" Accept these strains, thy lover's latest breath, 
" His dying legacy, withheld too long I — 
" Cease now, O cease, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 



Thus Damon : next Alphesibceus' strain 
Record, ye Muses ! for our powers are vain. 80 

" Bring water, and with fleecy fillet wreathe 
" This altar's frame, and bid rich incense breathe, 
" And vervain burn ; that so my spells may fire 
" The cold swain's sense, and force him to admire. 
" Those spells, unseconded, will stamp his doom — 85 

" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
home. 
" The spell of verse can drag th' obedient moon 
" From heaven, when riding in her highest noon : 
" Ulysses' comrades with the numerous spell 
" Circe transform'd : cold serpents writhe and swell, 90 
" Compell'd by mighty song, and burst in foam — 

" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
home. 
" First, these three threads in mystic union join'd, 
" Three-colour'd, I around his image bind ; 
" And with that image circle thrice the shrine 95 

" (Uneven numbers please the powers divine !) 
" So may he at my potent summons come — [home. 

" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 



50 

Necte tribus nodis ternos, Amarylli, colores : [necto." 

Necte, Amarylli, modo ; et, " Veneris," die, " vincula 

Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 

Limus ut hie durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit 80 

Uno eodemque igni ; sic nostro Daphnis amore ! 
Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros. 
Daphnis me malus urit ; ego hanc in Daphnida laurum. 
Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 

Talis amor Daphnin, qualis quum fessa juvencum 85 
Per nemora atque altos quaerendo bucula lucos 
Propter aquae rivum viridi procumbit in ulva 
Perdita, nee serae meminit decedere nocti, 
Talis amor teneat, nee sit mihi cura mederi. 

Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 

Has olim exuvias mihi perfldus ille reliquit, 91 

Pignora cara sui ! quae nunc ego limine in ipso, 
Terra, tibi mando ; debent haec pignora Daphnin. 

Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 

Has herbas, atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena, 95 

Ipse dedit Mceris ; nascuntur plurima Ponto. 
His ego saepe lupum fieri, et se condere sylvis 
Mcerin, saepe animas imis excire sepulcris, 



51 

" In threefold knot now, Amaryllis, tie 
" The triple threads : and still, in tightening, cry ; 100 
" ' With these, love's knots, I knit him ne'er to roam' — 
" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 

home. 
" As hardens in one fire this moulded clay, 
" And melts this wax, so Daphnis melt away; 
" So harden in my love ! The salted meal 105 

" Now sprinkle ; burn the crackling bay : I feel 
" Harsh Daphnis fire me ! Such his lot I doom— 
" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 

home. 
" O seize him love like that, when far and near 
" The wearied heifer seeks her wandering steer ; 110 
" And having languished much, and rambled long 
" The wide-spread forest's lengthening glades among, 
** Sinks on some river's bank : nor quits the grove, 
" Though night's late hours approach ! Him seize such 

love, 
" Nor deign I his physician to become — 115 

" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 

home. 
" To me these relics once the traitor left, 
" Dear relics ! These I now, of him bereft, 
<£ Beneath my threshold, earth, to thee consign : 
" These, these again shall make the rover mine ; 120 
" Though, far estranged, 'midst other scenes he roam — 
" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 

home. 
" These herbs, these poisons cull'd on Pontic ground 
" (In Pontus, herbs of deadly power abound) 
" Mceris bestow'd : and him I oft have view'd, 125 

" Changed by their force, in sylvan solitude 
" Howl, a fierce wolf; transport the bearded grain 
" From it's first native to a distant plain, 

e 2 



52 

Atque satas alio vidi traducere messes. 

Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 

Fer cineres, Amarylli, foras, rivoque fluenti 101 

Transque caput jace ; ne respexeris : his ego Daphnin 
Adgrediar. Nihil ille deos, nil carmina, curat. 

Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 

Adspice : conripuit tremulis altaria flammis 105 

Sponte sua, dum ferre moror, cinis ipse. Bonum sit ! 
Nescio quid certe est ; et Hylax in limine latrat — 
Credimus ? an, qui amant, ipsi sibi somnia fingunt ? 
Parcite, ab urbe venit, jam parcite carmina, Daphnis." 



IX. MCERIS. 



Lye. Quo te, Moeri, pedes ? an, quo via ducitin urbem? 

Mcer. O Lycida, vivi pervenimus, advena nostri 
(Quod numquam veriti sumus) ut possessor agelli 
Diceret : " Hsec mea sunt : veteres, migrate, coloni." 
Nunc victi, tristes, quoniam Fors omnia versat, 5 

Hos illi (quod nee bene vertat) mittimus hasdos. 

Lye. Certe equidem audieram, qua se subducere colles 
Incipiunt mollique jugum demittere clivo, 
Usque ad aquam et veteres, jam fracta cacumina, fagos, 
Omnia carminibus vestrum servasse Menalcan. 10 



VIKGIL S BUCOLICS. 53 

i( And call pale spectres from the yawning tomb — 
" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
home. 130 

" Forth, Amaryllis, forth the ashes bear, 
" And o'er thy shoulder in the streamlet clear 
" Whelm them, with unreverted head : a spell 
(i Of different kind his stubborn soul shall quell. 
" Nor Gods he heeds, nor dreads the strains of doom — 
" Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
home. 136 

" And lo ! the altar gleams with quivering blaze, 
" Self-kindled, while my tardy hand delays 
" To bear the ashes to the destined flood : 
" Something it, sure, portends — O be it good ! 140 

" May I, then, trust my heart's fond wishes ? Hark I 
" Loud at the door I hear my Hylax bark — 
" Or weave I Love's light dream in fancy's loom ? 
" No, cease, my charms; he comes, comes from the 
city home ! " 



IX. MCERIS. 



Lycidas. Whither, good Moeris ? For the city bent 
Mceris. O Lycidas, our life, with sad extent, 
Has reached to woes beyond my utmost fear ; 
" Begone, old landlords ; I am master here," 
Our little field's usurper sternly cries ! 5 

To him, since thus her wheel dame Fortune plies, 
These kids— ill luck go with them ! sad I bear. 

Lye. I heard, indeed— and oh, would such things were ! 
That where yon hills slope gently to the plain, 
Far as to Mincius' banks (his own domain) 10 

Their shatter'd tops where those old beeches raise, 
Menalcas had protected by his lays. 






54? VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 

Mcer. Audieras ; et fama fuit : sed carmina tantum 
Nostra valent, Lycida, tela inter Martia, quantum 
Chaonias dicunt, aquila veniente, columbas. 
Quod nisi me quacumque novas incidere lites 
Ante sinistra cava monuisset ab ilice cornix, 15 

Nee tuus hie Moeris, nee viveret ipse Menalcas. [nobis 

Lye. Heu ! cadit in quemquam tantum scelus ? heu ! tua 
Paene simul tecum solatia rapta, Menalca ! 
Quis caneret Nymphas ? Quis humum florentibus herbis 
Spargeret, aut viridi fontes induceret umbra ? 20 

Vel quae sublegi tacitus tibi carmina nuperj 
Quum te ad delicias ferres, Amaryllida, nostras ? 
" Tityre, dum redeo, brevis est via, pasce capellas ; 
" Et potum pastas age, Tityre ; et inter agendum 
" Occursare capro, cornu ferit ille, caveto." 25 



Mcer. Imm6 hasc, qua? Varo necdum perfecta canebat. 
" Vare, tuum nomen (superet modo Mantua nobis, 
" Mantua, vae ! miserae nimitim vicina Cremonse !) 
" Cantantes sublime ferent ad sidera eyeni." 

Lye. Sic tua Cyrneas fugiant examina taxos ; 30 

Sic, cytiso pastas, distendant ubera vaccag : 
Incipe, si quid habes. Et me fecere poetam 
Pierides ; sunt et mihi carmina ; me quoque dicunt 
Vatem pastores : sed non ego credulus illis. 
Nam neque adhuc Vario videor, nee dicere Cinna S5 
Digna, sed argutos inter strepere -anser olores. 

Mcer. Id quidem ago ; et tacitus, Lycida, mecum ipse 
voluto, 
Si valeam meminisse ; neque est ignobile carmen. 
" Hue ades, 6 Galatea; quis est nam ludus in undis ? 
"Hie ver purpureum ; varios hie flumina circum 40 
" Fundi t humus flores ; hie Candida populus antro 



VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 55 

Moer. So were you told, and Fame so blazed abroad : 
But weak our lays, by clashing arms o'er-awed, 
Asj when the eagle swoops, Dodona's dove. 15 

Nay — but that, croaking from the tree of Jove, 
The left-hand raven warn'd me not to strive, 
Nor Mceris nor his lord had been alive. [dare ? 

Lye. And lives there, who such deed of death would 
Alas ! how near had vanish' d into air 20 

With thee, Menalcas, all thy soothing verse ! 
For who the nymphs' soft praises would rehearse ? 
Who o'er the ground the gather'd foliage fling, 
Or screen with verdant shade the living spring? 
WTio those sweet lines repeat I slily heard, 25 

As to my Amaryllis you repair'd ? 

6 Till, I return, my flock, kind Tityrus, feed 
f (Short is my journey) and to water lead; 
* But as thou lead'st them, Tityrus, have a care : 
' Of that old butting goat, dear boy, beware/ 30 

Moer. Or (sung to Varus) that unfinished strain ; 
6 Varus, thy name — if Mantua still remain, 
8 Ah ! to Cremona fatally too near ! 
6 Melodious swans to yon bright stars shall bear.' 

Lye. So may thy bees the poisonous yew forego ; 35 
Thy cows, on trefoil fed, with milk overflow ! 
Begin, if aught thy memory retain : 
Me, too, the Muses taught the sylvan strain ; 
I have my songs ; and many a swain avers, 
A bard I am : but far their judgement errs ! 40 

Unfit with Varius or with Cinna I, 
As gabbling geese with sweetest swans, to vie. 

Moer. Much I in silence have revolved, and long, 
To call to mind — 'tis no ignoble song — 

6 Hither to land, O Galatea, haste : 45 

6 What joy can flourish 'mid the watry waste ? 
< Here purple Spring with verdure decks the bowers, 
' And every streamlet's brink is strew'd with flowers : 



56 virgil's bucolics. 

" Imminet, et lentae texunt umbracula vites. 
" Hue ades ; insani feriant sine litora fluctus." 



Lye. Quid, quae te pura solum sub nocte canentem 
Audieram ? numeros memini, si verba tenerem. 45 

Mcer. " Daphni, quid antiquos signorum suspicis ortus? 
" Ecce, Dionaei processit Caesaris astrum ; 
" Astrum, quo segetes gauderent frugibus, et quo 
" Duceret apricis in collibus uva color em. 
" Insere, Daphni, piros ; carpent tuapoma nepotes — " 50 
Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque ; saepe ego longos 
Cantando puerum memini me condere soles. 
Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina ; vox quoque Moerin 
Jam fugit ipsa : lupi Moerin videre priores. 
Sed tamen ista satis referet tibi saepe Menalcas. 55 



Lye. Caussando nostros in longum ducis amores. 
Et nunc omne tibi stratum silet aequor ; et omnes, 
Adspice, ventosi ceciderunt murmuris aurae. 
Hinc adeo media est nobis via; namque sepulcrum 
Incipit adparere Bianoris : hie, ubi densas 60 

Agricolae stringunt frondes, hie, Moeri, canamus : 
Hie haedos depone; tamen veniemus in urbem. 
Aut si, nox pluviam ne colligat ante, veremur, 
Cantantes licet usque (minus via laedat) eamus : 
Cantantes ut eamus, ego hoc te fasce levabo. 65 

Mcer. Desine plura, puer ; et quod nunc instat, agamus, 
Carmina turn melius, quum venerit Ipse, canemus. 



VIltGIl/s BUCOLICS. 57 

' Here the white poplar quivers o'er each cave, 

6 And curling vines their shady foliage wave. 50 

* Hither, O Galatea, haste to land, 

' And let the surge rave idly on the strand/ [strain ! 

Lye. One moon-light night, thou sung'st too — such a 
The words forgotten, I the air retain. 

Moer. ' Why on old constellations, Daphnis gaze ? 55 
6 See, where it's beams the Julian star displays ; 
6 A star, whence fields draw fatness as it rolls, 

* And grapes grow duskier on their sunny knolls. 
6 Graft, Daphnis, for the rising race your pears :' 

~ Ah ! age, which pilfers all, not e'en the memory spares ! 

Oft when, a careless boy, I trod the mead, 

The lingering sun I carol'd to his bed : 

Now, every lay is vanish'd from my head. 

His very voice has hapless Moeris lost ; 

His path some wolf's first-darted glance has crost : 65 

But well the chasm Menalcas will supply. 

Lye. My wish but grows with your apology. 
And see ! the lake's broad plain unruffled spread, 
Nor moves one murmuring breeze the beech's head. 
Now midway of our journey we are come, 70 

For lo ! where rears it's head Bianor's tomb. 
Here sit we, Mceris, where the cluster'd boughs 
The farmers trim, and sing as we repose. 
Here rest your kids : we soon shall reach the town ; 
Or if we fear the night-storm's gathering frown, 75 

Light song will ease the road of half it's care : 
To aid your song, let me this burthen bear. 

Moer. Press me no more, but onward let us go : 
Sprightlier the strain, when He returns, will flow. 



} 



58 virgil's bucolics. 



X. GALLUS. 



Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede labor em. 
Pauca meo Gallo, sed quae legat ipsa Lycoris, 
Carmina sunt dicenda : neget quis carmina Gallo ? 
Sic tibi, quum fluctus subterlabere Sicanos, 
Doris amara suam non intermisceat undam. 5 

Incipe; sollicitos Galli dicamus amores, 
Dum tenera adtondent simae virgulta oapellae. 
Non canimus surdis : respondent omnia sylvae. 



Quae nemora, aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellae 
Nai'des, indigno quiim Gallus amore periret? 10 

Nam neque Parnasi vobis juga, nam neque Pindi 
Ulla moram fecere, neque Aonie Aganippe. 
Ilium etiam lauri, etiam flevere myricae ; 
Pinifer ilium etiam sola sub rupe jacentem 
Maenalus, et gelidi fleverunt saxa Lycaei. 15 

Stant et OVes Circum ; nostri nee poenitet illas 

Nee te pceniteat pecoris, divine poeta ; 

Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis. 

Venit et upilio : tardi venere bubulci ; 

Uvidus hiberna venit de glande Menalcas. 20 

Omnes, " Unde amor iste," rogant, "tibi?" Venit Apollo; 

ct Galle, quid insanis?" inquit: " tua cura Lycoris 

Perque nives alium, perque horrida castra, secuta est." 

Venit et agresti capitis Sylvanus honore, 

Florentes ferulas et grandia lilia quassans. 25 



59 



X. GALLUS. 



This closing effort, Arethusa, aid ; 
A few brief strains be to my Gallus paid : 
What bard to Gallus can a lay refuse ? 
And may L,ycoris' eye that mournful lay peruse. 
So, as thou glidest beneath Sicilia's brine, 5 

Her wave no bitter sea-nymph blend with thine ! 

Begin : record we Gallus, love's sad prey ; 
Our goats, meanwhile, will browse the tender spray. 
Nor sing we to the deaf: the woods reply, 
And bear the strains of sadness to the sky. 10 



Nymphs, o'er what lawns, what forests did ye rove, 
When Gallus faded in disastrous love ? 
For then nor Pindus nor th' Aonian mount 
Detain'd your steps, nor Aganippe's fount. 
For him the bay, for him the tamarisk pined ; 15 

For him, beneath their craggy feet reclined, 
Even Maenalus the dews of sorrow shed, 
And cold Lycaeus on his craggy bed. * 

The sheep stand round, nor slight their master's pain ; 
Nor thou, bright bard, the humble flock disdain : 20 
In beauty's prime beside the lucid flood, 
Well-pleased, Adonis fed his fleecy brood. 
The shepherd came ; and, with the herdsmen last, 
Menalcas dripping from the snow-soak'd mast. 
All seek thy passion's source. Apollo came ; 25 

And, " Whence this phrensy, Gallus ? She, thy flame 
" Lycoris," he exclaim'd, " another swain [domain." 
" Follows through barbarous camps and winter's drear 
With woodland wreath came old Sylvanus crown'd, 
Fennel and largest lilies nodding round. 30 



60 

Pan, deus Arcadiae, venit ; quern vidimus ipsi 

Sanguineis ebuli baccis minioque rubentem. 

" Ecquis erit modus?" inquit : " Amor non talia curat. 

Nee lacrimis crudelis Amor, nee gramina rivis, 

Nee cytiso saturantur apes, nee fronde capellae." 30 

Tristis at ille : " Tamen cantabitis, Arcades," inquit, 

" Montibus haec vestris ; soli cantare periti 

Arcades. O mihi turn quam molliter ossa quiescant, 

Vestra meos olim si fistula dicat amores ! 

Atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestrique fuissem 35 

Aut custos gregis, aut maturae vinitor uvae ! 
Certe, sive mihi Phyllis, sive esset Amyntas, 
Seu quicumque furor (quid turn, si fuscus Amyntas ? 
Et nigrae violae sunt, et vaccinia nigra) 
Mecum inter salices lenta sub vite jaceret; 40 

Serta mihi Phyllis legeret, cantaret Amyntas. 
Hie gelidi fontes; hie mollia prata, Lycori; 
Hie nemus ; hie ipso tecum consumerer aevo. 

Nunc insanus amor duri te Martis in armis 
Tela inter media atque adversos detinet hostes. 45 

Tu procul a patria (nee sit mihi credere tantum !) 

Alpinas, ah dura, iiives et frigoxa Rheni 

Me sine sola vides. Ah te ne frigora laedant ! 

Ah tibi ne teneras glacies secet aspera plantas ! 

Ibo et, Chalcidico quae sunt mihi condita versu 50 

Carmina, pastoris Siculi modulabor avena. 

Certum est in sylvis, inter spelsea ferarum 

Malle pati, tenerisque meos incidere amores 

Arboribus : crescent illse ; crescetis, amores. 



61 

Pan, too, we saw : th' Arcadian God appear'd 

With vermil dye and elder-berries smear'd ; 

" And yet this grief?" he asks. " In vain it flows : 

" No glut of tears insatiate Cupid knows. 

" Sooner shall herbage moisture cease to love, 35 

" The bee his trefoil, goats the budding grove." 

— " But you, Arcadians, deign (sad Gallus cried) 

" To sing my sorrows on each mountain's side : 

" You, only, of the poet's art possest ; "J 

" And softly, sweetly, will my relics rest, j>40 

" If by your simple reeds my suffering be exprest. J 

iC Ah had I, one of you, your flocks or fed, 
" Or pluck'd the grape' with luscious ripeness red ! 
" Then, whomsoe'er had woo'd my amorous strain — . 
" Or Phyllis, or Amyntas — we had lain 45 

" In willowy bower o'erhung with flaunting vine ; 
" And he would sing, or she the chaplet twine. 
" Nor had I cared, that dusky he to view : 
" Dusky the hyacinth's, the violet's hue. 
cc Here cooling springs, Lycoris, meadows gay ^ 50 

" With flowers, and winding glades invite to stray; £ 
" Here could I, blest with thee, wile life's fleet hours 
away. 

" Thee reckless love in iron fields detains, 
" Where all the fury of the battle reigns : 
" Thou tread'st — and is it true? perfidious fair, 55 

" No Gallus at thy side to shield or share, 
" Dauntless tread'st Alpine snows, and ice-bound Rhine I 
" Ah ! may no ice wound those soft feet of thine ; 
" No arrowy sleet that tender person pierce ! "} 
" For me, adapting my Chalcidian verse V 60 

" To pastoral pipe, I'll sylvan strains rehearse. J 
" Yes, 'tis resolved : 'mid wildest lairs I'll go, 
" And there in solitude endure my woe ; 
" Carve on the tender rind my tale of love, 
(i And mark it growing with the growing grove. 65 



5 



62 virgil's bucolics. 

Interea mixtis lustrabo Maenala Nymphis ; 55 

Aut acres venabor apros ; non me ulla vetabunt 

Frigora Parthenios canibus circumdare saltus. 

Jam mihi per rupes videor, lucosque sonantes, 

Ire ; libet Partho torquere Cydonia cornu 

Spicula ; tamquam haec sint nostri medicina furoris, 60 

Aut deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat ! 

Jam neque Hamadryades rursum, nee carmina nobis 
Ipsa placent; ipsa?, rursum concedite, sylvae. 
Non ilium nostri possunt mutare labor es ; 
Nee, si frigoribus mediis Hebrumque bibamus, 65' 

Sithoniasque nives hiemis subeamus aquosae ; 
Nee si, quiim moriens alta liber aret in ulmo, 
iEthiopum versemus oves sub sidere Cancri. 
Omnia vincit Amor ; et nos cedamus Amori." 



Haec sat erit, Divae, vestrum cecinisse poetam, 70 

Dum sedet, et gracili fiscellam texit hibisco, 
Pierides. Vos haec facietis maxima Gallo ; 
Gallo, cujus amor tantum mihi crescit in horas, 
Quantum vere novo viridis se subjicit alnus. 

Surgamus : solet esse gravis cantantibus umbra^ 75 
Juniperi gravis umbra ; nocent et frugibus umbrae. 
Ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite, capellae. 



virgil's bucolics. 63 

" Or Maenalus, with mingling nymphs, I'll tread ; 

€c Or chase the tusky savage, undismay'd : 

" Nor storms shall stay me, as with faithful hound 

" Arcadia's forest-depths T girdle round. 

" Now over rocks, through groves, I seem to go ; 70 

" Now twang my shafts from Parthia's horned bow : 

" As if such toils the tyrant could remove, 

* Or any human art could medicine love ! 

" Ah ! nor by wood-nymphs I, nor woodland strain, 
" Solaced or sooth'd ! Farewell, ye woods, again. 75 
" Vainly to tame th' obdurate God we try : 
" Not should our lip drain wintry Hebrus dry, 
" Not though our foot 'mid storms trod Thracia's snows, 
" Not though we fed our flocks where Cancer glows 
" On Indian sands, and peels the towering grove — 80 
" Love conquers all ; and we must yield to love." 



Enough, ye Muses, has your bard essay'd, 
Weaving his rushy basket in the shade. 
These numbers you to Gallus will endear ; 
Gallus for whom, as year succeeds to year, 85 

My love still grows, as in the vernal prime 
The alder's shoots with strong luxuriance climb. 

Rise we ; the juniper's strong shade annoys 
The minstrel choir, the ripening grain destroys : 
Goats, from your pastures sated homeward hie — 90 

See, where bright Hesper fires the evening sky. 



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